Topsham Select Board Meets April 2 for Regular Monthly Session

The Topsham Select Board convened Thursday in the Don Russell Meeting Room at Town Hall with FY27 budget priorities and an affordable housing financing amendment on the table, both carrying direct consequences for the town's nearly 9,644 residents before the annual June Budget Validation Referendum.

Chairman R. Tufts, whose term runs through November 2027, led the five-member board through its regular 6:30 p.m. session alongside Vice-Chair M. Nixon, M. Brillant, A. Callahan, and R. Holmes. The April meeting fell within the critical spring window when Select Board decisions determine what figures ultimately go before voters.

Among the items carrying the most fiscal weight: capital road and infrastructure work that figured prominently in the FY26 budget and is expected to extend into FY27 planning. Published FY26 goals included completing the Tedford Road culvert project, finishing Foreside Field parking lot improvements, and continuing work on both Pleasant Point Road and Tedford Road. Any of those projects with unfinished business feeds directly into the budget figures now being assembled.

The Finance Committee supplied the board with a financial baseline for that work. Secretary Sonya Sampson and members Robert Dodge, Kimberly Mondonedo, and Ruth Lyons conducted a FY25-26 budget review in February 2025 covering legally required expenditures, public safety, public works, vehicles and equipment, and general government operations.

A separate item with longer-term implications: the First Amendment to the 25 Hackmatack Road Municipal Affordable Housing TIF District. The proposal would remove approximately 2.71 acres from the existing TIF district, preserving that acreage for a potential future affordable housing TIF. Any such change requires approval from both Town Meeting and the Maine State Housing Authority.

The timeline for all of these decisions is compressed. Topsham holds its Budget Validation Referendum Election on the second Tuesday in June, leaving a narrow window for the Select Board to finalize warrant articles and budget figures. With seats held by A. Callahan and R. Holmes set to expire in November 2026, the choices made this spring will be part of the fiscal record voters weigh when those elections arrive.

Topsham accounts for roughly one-quarter of Sagadahoc County's 36,699 residents, making it one of the larger municipalities in Maine's smallest county by area. The Select Board office is reachable at (207) 725-5821. Meeting recordings are archived and available on the Topsham Town YouTube channel; the board's next session is scheduled for the third Thursday of April.