The Bennington Select Board identified multiple areas to cut costs in the town’s fiscal 2026 budget at their Jan. 6 meeting.

The board is finalizing the draft of the budget  in preparation for the public budget hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Bennington Town Hall Gymnasium. All warrant articles and all budgets will be reviewed by residents at the first session of Town Meeting to discuss warrant articles and budgets Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m.

Chair James Cleary said the town’s Budget Committee had recently commended the Select Board for keeping the budget low.

“They sent an email and said we have done a great job keeping costs down this year,” Cleary said. 

In reviewing costs for 2025, the board identified several areas in the working draft of the budget where they felt spending could be reduced. One increase in 2024 was costs for maintenance of the town’s water and sewer services, many of which are performed by Antrim Water and Sewer Department staff. 

“We have to pay the Antrim Water Department to do a lot, but the increase is pretty high,” Cleary said. “We will talk to our water and sewer commissioner and see what else can be done in-house.” 

According to Bennington Town Administrator Deborah Davidson, Antrim is currently charging Bennington $93 an hour for water and sewer services, including hands-on maintenance and monitoring. The portion of the budget covering water and sewer services went up by $55,000 in 2024. 

Davidson said the rate had been reduced from Antrim’s original bills, which charged Bennington $109 an hour. 

“We will look into that and double-check the bill,” Davidson said. 

In reviewing other departmental line items, the board agreed to cut spending in administrative overtime, tree services, IT support and groundskeeping. 

Cleary noted that the Police Department budget was down from the previous year due to reduced cost in vehicle maintenance after the town purchases a new Chevy Tahoe.

“Buying the Tahoe saved us a lot of money,” Cleary said. 

The Fire Department, whose projected expenses include $4,100 for a forest fire apparatus, will make a presentation on their budget at an upcoming meeting.

Cleary noted that transfer station costs had increased due to higher fees for hazardous material disposal at the facility in Keene, as well as a 50% increase in the cost of removing “junk and recyclables.”

“We got the best price we could get, but there is extreme fluctuation in the market for recyclables,” Cleary said. 

The board planned to finalize the budget at their meeting on Monday, Jan. 13, in order to get the budget out to the public a minimum of eight days prior to the Jan. 21 hearing. 

Flag policy created

After complaints from residents that town flags were not lowered immediately after the death of former President Jimmy Carter, the board approved a motion to adapt a policy regarding the lowering of the town’s flags in official periods of mourning.

Several town residents noticed that the town’s flags were not lowered several days after the death of Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.

“There was no malice or ill intent with the flags not being lowered,” Davidson said. “It was over the holidays. We had people sick. We had people who were out of town. I was away. All the flags were down by 7 a.m. this morning.”

Cleary said he wished people would contact Select Board members or town staff rather than making complaints on social media.

“If people are driving by and they have a concern, maybe they could stop and lower the flag themselves,” said Select Board member Tom James. 

Select Board member Tony Parisi developed a policy around flag lowering requiring that  “all departments are responsible for their own flags.” 

“We have now nailed down who is going to take care of each flag,” Parisi said. 

The new policy requires that every department take care of their own flag. Parisi said Road Agent DJ Wing and firefighters Zack Anderson and Curtis Dude had already volunteered to lower  the town’s flags in the future, and that the fire department had signed up for official notifications.

“Our town staff went and lowered every single flag with the proper ceremony this morning,” Cleary said. 

The board passed the new flag policy unanimously.