Select Board keeps admin hours on fall warrant

Select Board · Meeting of September 24, 2026

Berlin Select Board restores a $20,000 staffing increase the Finance Committee had just cut. Town Administrator Dee told the board she is working roughly 55 hours a week and could not sustain the pace past May without added administrative support, as members voted to keep 16 additional hours for the town administrator's office assistant on the fall Special Town Meeting warrant despite the Finance Committee's 4-0 vote against it, led by member Mary Porter. The board separately accepted $10,000 cuts each to the heating oil and gas/diesel budget lines, to be backfilled from reserves if needed.

Clerk Margaret "Peg" Stone and Vice Chair Carolyn MacDonald pressed for a written justification documenting workload before the warrant is finalized. The meeting also touched a Historical Commission proposal to lower the demolition-delay bylaw threshold from 100 to 75 years and an update that state legislation to expand the board to five members is advancing. The board adjourned 6:55 p.m. on a 3-0 roll call: Wysocki, MacDonald and Stone all voting "aye."

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• Who Was There
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• The complete report — 2,030 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of September 24, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.