With many towns and cities in the midst of their next fiscal year budgeting, Auburn’s Interim Town Manager Dori Vecchio advises that the next fiscal year’s budget increase beginning July 1 and running through June 30, 2026 is a 2.10% increase of $1,770,048.

“There will be a pre-town meeting on Tuesday, April 29, for Auburn Town Meeting Members to review the town warrant,” said Vecchio, “there are 40 articles on our warrant which includes many citizens’ petitions and zoning changes as well as a moratorium on multi-family home construction. We are asking the Attorney General to allow our town a six-month moratorium on multi-family home construction, so we may work out future planning for multi-family housing as part of our town planning.”

The pause is a request that no new building permits be issued for 180 days so that a housing project plan may be reviewed along with design requirements. The request is to draft additional zoning amendments as well as to conduct zoning workshops for Auburn residents. “We are not against housing,” stated Vecchio, “we just want to ensure zoning and guidelines are all completed properly. We are very supportive of additional housing but many requests are coming in right now. We currently have Albert Street, Athens Street, Perry Place, and Wallace Avenue which are all in.”

Auburn’s Annual Town Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 6 at 6 p.m. in the Auburn High School Auditorium. Annual Town Elections will be held on Tuesday, May 20, from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Auburn High School Gym.  

“We are also gearing up for our Robert Goddard Memorial Event to be held on the weekend of March 14 and 15, 2026, said Vecchio, “we have a town group getting together along with town employees to schedule two days of events to properly celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Robert Goddard’s successful rocket launch.” 

Goddard launched the first successful rocket using liquid fuel and is said to be as significant to history as the Wright Brothers’ plane flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  According to Road Trip New England, “Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket from a snowy field on his aunt’s farm in Auburn. This first step into outer space came just 23 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight and, within a lifetime, man would walk on the moon.”