By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Fire District No. 1 held its annual meeting at the Brandon American Legion on Monday evening. The purpose of the meeting was to elect officers and pass a budget for Fiscal Year 2025–26, which will begin on July 1, 2025 and ends on June 30, 2026.
The Fire District encompasses both the Brandon Fire Department and the Brandon Water Department and is a separate legal entity from the Town of Brandon, which has no oversight over the District. The District is overseen by a Prudential Board composed of 5 elected members.
Though water bills in Brandon are sent out in conjunction with sewer bills, as a convenience, the water portion of the bills goes to the Fire District and the sewer portion goes to the town, which oversees Brandon’s wastewater system.
The first order of business on Monday evening was the election of Bill Moore as Moderator. The role had been performed by Karen Rhodes for the previous year. Mr. Moore then led the meeting through the remainder of the evening’s agenda.
Kristy Pinkham was unanimously re-elected as Clerk and Treasurer.
Natalie Steen was unanimously re-elected to a 3-year term on the Prudential Board.
Jon Wyman was unanimously re-elected to a 2-year term on the Prudential Board.
A vote between Linwood Bovey and Amber Lee for another open 2-year seat on the Prudential Board was decided by a raised-hand vote in Ms. Lee’s favor (12 votes to 9). This seat had been held by David Snow, who did not seek re-election. Ms. Lee had been an Auditor for the District.
Linwood Bovey, David Snow, and Tracy Wyman were all elected Auditors.
An article was passed to keep the same pay schedule for these elected positions as had been in place for the previous year:
- $800 per year for each Prudential Board member
- $100 per year for the Treasurer
- $25 per year for each Auditor
- $10 per meeting for the Moderator
- $10 per meeting for the Clerk
The District’s FY26 budget was unanimously approved at $1,049,372, of which $340,250 is to be raised by taxes and $709,122 by non-tax revenues. Compared to the current year’s budget, this represents an increase of 1.8% in the overall budget and an increase of 0.7% (less than 1%) in the amount to be raised by taxes.
The voters also unanimously approved an article authorizing the expenditure of no more than $75,000 for the purchase of 6 acres of land on Birch Hill Road in Brandon in preparation for the installation of a new water tank to replace the underground tank on Route 73 near the Brandon-Goshen line.
The maximum of $75,000 will include the purchase of the land and all the attendant costs of the transaction (e.g., surveys, maps, and permits). The funds for the purchase will come from the Water Department’s reserve fund.
According to Prudential Board member Dennis Reisenweaver, the process to obtain funding for the project, which is anticipated to cost millions, will take several years. The Board will be pursuing grants in addition to a bond, which will eventually be put before voters for approval. If the bond is approved, the cost will be borne by customers of the water district.
