Auburn Finance Panel Votes to Recommend $550,000 for Road Paving at May Town Meeting

AUBURN — April 8, 2026 — Auburn Finance Committee backs $550,000 road-paving petition and sweeps through 29 warrant articles for the May 5 Annual Town Meeting. The committee voted to recommend approval of a citizens' petition filed by Select Board Vice Chair Todd Corrine, who appeared remotely and emphasized he was acting as a private citizen, to appropriate $550,000 from free cash to the DPW roadway improvement account — enough, at the town's current estimate of $130 per linear foot, to pave at least three miles of roads and leave $300,000 for pothole patching, compared to the 2.67 miles achievable under the existing budget. The CFO confirmed the expenditure would reduce the town's free cash balance to approximately $8.284 million after all fiscal year 2027 articles. Town Manager Dory Vecchio presented five budget amendments producing a net tax-levy increase of $61,217, including a $100,000 jump in the Law Department budget to $245,000 following an RFQ for municipal legal services, a $6,011 fire department increase tied to a clerical line change, a $75,000 sewer reduction from a lower Upper Blackstone assessment, a $20,000 solid waste increase amid unresolved contract negotiations, and a $72,000 health-insurance savings. A citizen petition by Auburn resident Alan Rafferty seeking a home-rule petition to enable rent regulation at the town's mobile home parks — where Parakeet Communities has imposed increases of 40 percent or more on residents — was deferred to the petitioner after a motion to recommend it failed without a second. The committee also deferred to petitioners on two articles seeking to clean up a never-fulfilled $100,000 bond condition attached to the Potter Farm Estates road acceptance from a 2003 Special Town Meeting, and heard testimony from Simon Street residents describing dangerous school-hour parking congestion blocking emergency-vehicle access near Bryn Mawr Elementary School and Swanson Street Middle School.