Intern presents STEWARD app to show town project histories and tax impact

Arun, a summer intern who helped develop a prototype called STEWARD, demonstrated a web tool the town could use to collect project timelines, budgets and source documents in one place so residents can see how decisions affect tax bills.

"Every statistic here is linked and is public," Arun said, explaining that figures come from published town records and were verified by the finance director and department heads. In a live demo he showed a timeline view, a funding breakdown and an interactive slider that estimates additional town tax based on an assessed property value.

Board members praised the application as a potential town resource. Chair Wendy said the tool would help residents "see what is going on in these projects for both now and in the future," and noted the town is considering how best to incorporate volunteer work and existing town platforms. Arun said his Boy Scout troop (Troop 94) would help maintain updates and produce simplified guides and videos for less tech-savvy residents.

The presentation identified follow-up questions the board and staff plan to address before any official deployment: where the site would be hosted (intern-hosted GitHub vs. town hosting), ownership and data governance, security controls, and a verification workflow with department heads for new estimates. Arun said he was open to either hosting arrangement but that town-hosted deployment would require additional discussion about operations and verification.