“Our latest town meeting passed a $65 million budget and we have a $1 million capital fund,” said Rick LaFond, Webster Town Administrator, “our department heads do a really good job of assembling their budgets. Tim Bell and Courtney Friedland put together a really good plan. They do a good job getting the word out to the public. It’s a trusting environment. Between our town website listing the Town Meeting Guide and for Webster townspeople who want to follow along, they can do so. It’s a down-to-earth and boots-on-the-ground documentation. People don’t hesitate to phone me or our department heads with questions and it’s worked out very well. We don’t want to get overly-sophisticated and want to make it as easy as possible for the general public to understand.”

LaFond further stated that the town used $1.3 million in Free Cash at the May town budget meeting which lines up with the $1.3 million in out-of-district school transportation costs that was overwhelmingly put toward the Special Education budget. Unfortunately, however, he also felt there was not enough interest from the state, but the town must adhere to state law. “Nevertheless, if this continues for our Special Ed. budget, we’ll have to find additional areas of revenue. We are bound by law to make this work and transportation costs have doubled in the last three years as there are more students in our town. Just this past year, we had two students who required their own registered nurses and the town is required to fund this need. State officials are in charge of deciding which students are designated as Special Education.” 

On another budget item, LaFond mentioned that this is the second year that an appropriation of $25,000 was passed to assist with the lake’s weed project. “The abutting lake homeowners live on the lake and don’t own the lake but they spend $100,000 annually to keep the lake vegetation at bay,” he said.

Also of significance is the Route 395 and Route 16 dual-intersection project which LaFond indicated is on time with some inconvenience, but the detouring is currently at a minimum. “There shouldn’t be too much lengthy detouring now,” he stated. “The state is still on target to finish in the Spring of 2027. The roundabout side, near Mapfre Insurance, required new water mains as per our Water/Sewer Commission and with Tom Cutler, our Water and Sewer Superintendent in charge, it worked out very well. There were zero complaints about this part of the project.”

LaFond stated that the selectboard has established a Master Planning C ommittee and are forming it currently. The committee will consist of members from all town departments as well as two to three at-large community members. There will also be a committee established for advocacy of the town’s Historical Commission.

Recently, Webster’s third Business Breakfast Committee met which consists of commercial property owners. Members felt that invitations to local business owners to join may be of future consideration. “We’re asking our business property owners to tell us what they like and dislike about our town. We’d like their advice and we agree we should be working through zoning bylaws for a positive process. Feedback has been positive thus far. Our meetings will be held quarterly going forward,” said LaFond.

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