Board trims and reprioritizes town property maintenance, offers partial spring funding for plantings

The selectboard agreed to keep the town property maintenance appropriation near $5,000 and discussed allowing a portion of current-year surplus to cover a volunteer planting proposal. Chair (S2) noted about $2,400 had already been spent through December on yard work and suggested returning $1,000 to the maintenance line; members proposed using about $1,500 of surplus this fiscal year toward plantings to give the volunteer group roughly $2,500 to spend next spring.

Board members praised the presentation from the volunteers and recommended a phased approach. “They did a great job with their presentation, and it was very thorough,” the chair said. Members agreed to start with front plantings and evaluate results before funding additional areas; no formal contract or final allocation was approved — the board recorded a note to revisit the item when final year‑end balances are available.