Town officials in Bennington are faced with a conundrum this budget season: How can the town keep the tax rate low while also raising money for key infrastructure projects?
The Select Board and the Budget Committee met Wednesday night for a preliminary budget meeting. While it was agreed that the budget should once again be kept as flat as possible, the two groups discussed how the town would address road infrastructure in the future.
“We may have to come up with a creative way to address the roads in town,” said Selectman James Cleary. “We have to start looking at some alternatives.”
A number of ideas were discussed during the meeting, including adding the cost to the budget, creating warrant articles, and even turning some of the town’s asphalt roads into gravel roads.
Selectman Steven Osienski said the town should think about raising the budget at some point, arguing that more needs to be invested into the town’s infrastructure.
“I’m not sure we can afford to keep a tight budget anymore,” said Osienski. “All of our departments are funded at the bare minimum.
“Every year we are scraping for money. We are running our budget on a shoestring.”
A roadway committee was tasked with coming up with a better plan of action to address the roads. Cleary, Road Agent Gary Russell, and Budget Committee members John Baybutt and Jon Charlonne are the committee members.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 235, or at nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.