With little fanfare Monday night, Apr. 7, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved more than 20 cuts to its proposed Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget in order to reduce it by $85,391, per the Board of Finance.

Town officials focused a significant portion of the reductions in costs related to Merwin Meadows. The Merwin Meadows Pond is scheduled to be closed this summer as the town begins a year-long remediation project following last year’s flood damage. First Selectman Toni Boucher said Parks and Recreation Department Director Steve Pierce was able to make cuts after he received new details related to the project’s schedule and verifying there would be no swimming in the pond this summer.

“Once he received a contract for dredging and saw the timeline, he then was able to reduce staffing and other line items,” she said.

Pierce reduced part-time salaries by $43,800, from $106,800 to $63,000. Swimming also saw just under $15,000 in reductions for overtime, training, operating and maintenance, for a total of $58,650.

Other areas where cuts were made included:

  • $5,000 cut from the economic development budget, taking it from $20,000 to $15,000
  • The Highway Department lost just under $5,000 in the combined categories of overtime, custodial services and road maintenance salt
  • The Department of Public Works sacrificed $2,000 from its $20,000 professional services and engineering budget line
  • The line item for a medical advisor in the Health Department was reduced from $4,984 to $323, for a savings of $4,661
  • In the Social Services budget, $2,000 was taken from a $5,000 line item for transportation services
  • The Senior Center‘s general supply line item was reduced by $1,000, from $23,000 to $22,000
  • Other savings were found in Parks and Grounds, Tennis, Environment and Utilities
Cuts made to the Board of Selectmen FY 2026 proposed operating budget after the Board of Finance asked for just over $85,000 in reductions Credit: Town of Wilton

“These are small areas that were pulled out,” Town CFO Dawn Norton said, noting it was a joint effort between herself, Boucher, Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker and the various department heads.

Boucher echoed that.

“The department heads were all involved and notified about this,” she said.

Selectwoman Kim Healy, the only ‘Nay’ vote of the original BOS operating budget proposal presented to the BOF, expressed stronger support for this newly-reduced number.

“I’m much more comfortable with this operating budget at this level,” she said.

With the BOF’s $85,391 reduction, the new proposed operating budget for the BOS would be $37,130,471, representing a 3.65% increase over the current $35.8 million BOS budget.

Along with the Board of Education’s portion, the Board of Finance unanimously approved a proposed $145,835,795 total operating budget for Fiscal Year 2026, representing an overall 3.92% increase over the current $140,339,906 budget.

This figure will be brought to Wilton voters for their approval at the Annual Town Meeting on May 6.