SHAFTSBURY – The Shaftsbury Select Board held a preliminary discussion of the fiscal year 2027 town budget on Monday and will revisit the discussion at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Board Chair Zoe Contros Kearl opened Monday’s budget discussion with some thoughts.

"This is just the beginning of the conversation. We're starting a little bit early this year. We'd love to get public input, and we want to make sure that we're really in a good place, and really understand this budget as things change," she said. “So, you're going to see increases in costs for both increased services provided and due to circumstances outside of our control.”

Some expenses are due to temporary projects such as the effort to deal with the Emerald Ash Borer, she said.

“We really need to speed up that process. Those tre

See Full Page