Ambler Farm Praised & New Question Raised on Infrastructure Fund at Smooth, Supportive (and Long) 2025 Annual Town Meeting

Strong support for Ambler Farm earmarked a three-hour Annual Town Meeting (ATM) on Tuesday night, May 6, at which Wilton residents heard details to help them decide on whether they want to approve the $145.8-million proposed budget and 10 capital expenditures totaling $9.6 million for Fiscal Year 2026.

With little fanfare, a question was also raised regarding the imminent creation of a municipal infrastructure fund and exactly what capital items that money is going to be used for in coming years.

On Saturday, May 10, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Wilton High School Clune Auditorium, residents will have an opportunity to vote on each of the 10 capital items as 10 separate referendums, as well as the $145,835,795 Fiscal Year 2026 budget and mill rate of 24.4054 mils.

The 10 referendum items, which total $9,558,610, are as follows:

Several residents raised questions about why the Board of Selectmen was choosing, for the first time, to have a Department of Public Works dump truck paid for as a bonded capital item, instead of in the BOS operating budget, as has been traditional.

The intention of the DPW is to purchase a new truck every year to keep its fleet fresh, and the BOS is advocating that going forward the annual purchase be part of capital requests, as the road restoration has been for the last few years.

Asked directly about the matter in the last minutes of the Town Meeting, however, First Selectman Toni Boucher told a different story.

For the first time since the idea of a new infrastructure fund was introduced this year to address monumental costs of long-delayed town and school building repair, Boucher said the money would, in part, also be used to pay for items like the DPW trucks.

“We’re in the process of convening a subcommittee to look at creating a non-lapsing infrastructure fund that we can seed with funds,” Boucher said. “Hopefully, we will be able to put some funds in there this year because of the extraordinary increase in our Grand List, so that, in the future, we will have this fund that we can actually pay outright for an item like that rather than bonding it.

“But since it does satisfy the bonding requirements,” she continued, “it was critical that we don’t use that here to buy that and delay it once more, because we have another one coming behind it that is almost out of its useful life and we need to keep the roads safe for our school busses and our residents.”

Town officials have said that two representatives each from the Boards of Education, Finance and Selectmen will meet to establish the ground rules for the Capital Non-Recurring Fund that Boucher referenced, which up until now has been described as an exclusive fund for building repair and maintenance costs.

On Apr. 1, the BOF moved $375,000 into a charter reserve account with the intention of putting that in the new infrastructure fund, once it’s up and running. Details regarding by whose authority and approval those funds will be handled, is to be discussed by a subcommittee that includes Boucher, Selectman Ross Tartell, BOF Chair Matt Raimondi, BOF member Tim Birch, BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca, and BOE member Lori Bufano.

While members of the BOS have discussed making the DPW truck an annual capital item to be voted on for bonding, there has been no discussion about using that infrastructure fund for the trucks or any operating items. Boucher’s comment seemed to surprise Raimondi and DeLuca, who exchanged looks after the remark was made.

[Editor’s note: After the meeting, Raimondi told GMW that it was too premature to comment on how the fund would be spent before the subcommittee convenes and “formally define[s] its overarching goals.” However, he said during past discussions (including his earlier presentation to the BOF and BOS building on prior steps taken by former First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice on the infrastructure fund concept), “the stated preliminary purpose of the Fund is to address improvements in school and municipal infrastructure.”]

Over the next 10 to 15 years, the town is facing enormous costs of up to $150 million in both school and municipal building repairs and renovations, based on studies. The BOS is reconvening the Town and School Needs Assessment Priorities Committee (TSNAP) later this year to make recommendations on how Wilton should prioritize those numerous items.

While she spoke in favor of the 10 capital items, resident Melissa Spohn said it fell far short of what the town needed.

“The current funding puts a $10 million pinky-sized bandaid on a growing wound,” she said. “It is indeed a modest response that risks greater costs in the future.”

“Infrastructure maintenance needs rarely improve with time,” she said. “They typically compound.”

In tandem with the work of the TSNAP committee, Spohn said that the BOF annual survey should offer a chance to residents to rank the priority of projects.

“This approach would give residents more agency of prioritizing projects, allow for more nuanced feedback beyond too high, too low, just right … This could transform budget discussion from binary choices into more meaningful community conversations about priorities and long-term fiscal responsibility,” she said.

“True fiduciary responsibility means considering the town’s long-term financial health, not just minimizing immediate tax burden,” she said.

Ambler Farm Support Groundswell

Around a dozen residents offered personal comments of support for Ambler Farm and the proposed bonding to renovate the Raymond Ambler House, including Rob Sanders.

“Ambler Farm is really the essence of Wilton … It is a place where we plant the seeds of our future,” he said.

Sanders, an architect, said that further delays in tending to the failing structure on the property will only make things worse.

“Wilton has often squandered its assets,” he said, calling Ambler Farm “A statement of our community values, a place where we gather in small groups, and a place for community events that we’re proud of.”

Wilton’s State Sen. Ceci Maher also chimed in her support.

“It is a remarkable jewel and as I walk around, it breaks my heart that we have not taken care of the two homes there, that we have not fulfilled our commitment,” she said.

Maher said that many people come from surrounding towns to enjoy Ambler Farm, calling it an asset that needs to be protected.

Resident Moses Alexander raised the question of why the BOF, which gave a supportive endorsement to the other nine capital items that are now on the ballot, did not do so for the Ambler House.

“I thought it was glaring that the Board of Finance … didn’t take up the issue of Ambler Farm,” he said.

Raimondi said that the BOF exercised a choice to neither endorse nor oppose the Ambler Farm allocation, but instead, in essence, offered no comment.

“Everyone had their own individual reasons why we did not vote,” he said, suggesting that if people were interested, that they view the video of the BOF’s Apr. 8 meeting, during which it was discussed.

Along with several Ambler Farm employees, board members and supporters who rose to give impassioned statements of support for the town-owned amenity, one speaker in particular made the most meaningful difference in her public comment about why the farm’s bonding request deserved the town’s ratification.

Wilton High School senior Camryn Czarnecki said she was moved to speak and encourage residents to vote ‘Yes’ on the Raymond Ambler House renovation referendum because of how much she’d been impacted as a more than seven-year participant in the Ambler Farm apprentice program, rising from junior apprentice to project leader and mentor.

She acknowledged to the officials that she had a stutter as she started to give her very eloquent testimony, working hard and bravely to read her prepared remarks knowing all eyes in the auditorium were on her — and earning her the most sustained and strongest applause of the evening.

“I’ve gained leadership skills and enjoy seeing what all our work does and brings to the public. The skills the staff at Ambler Farm have taught me and my peers will follow us into our adult lives,” Czarnecki said. “Ambler Farm has helped me gain confidence but also the courage to come up here tonight to speak on behalf of the nonprofit organization that has given so much to me, my family and my community.

Support for the Budget

In comparison to the amount of time town officials spent explaining the budget and spending proposals, the portion of the meeting for public questions and comments was remarkably short and conflict-free, especially to observers who’ve seen extended debate at past ATMs.

While there was at least one resident who voiced outside concerns about development in town, and one who asked to be more informed about how the town spent last year’s budget, the remaining few residents who spoke gave strong support to both the budget and the town officials who worked on it.

“I rise in support of the budget,” resident Steve Hudspeth said.

“These are difficult times to work in financially (and) to be able to bring our town budget in, the way you have … You should be very proud of that,” he said. “We are appreciative of that.”

Voting will continue on Saturday, May 10, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Clune Auditorium (395 Danbury Rd.). For more information on the budget process in general and the development of the FY 2026 budget in particular, check out GOOD Morning Wilton‘s prior coverage on all things budget-related.