Southampton Select Board Creates Budget Task Force for Uncertain FY27 Cycle

Select Board · Meeting of January 20, 2026

Southampton Select Board unanimously backs a new budget task force as FY27 uncertainties mount. The board voted 3-0 with one abstention to authorize Town Administrator Scott to form a roughly nine-member working group to develop multiple budget scenarios before the annual town meeting, with membership drawn from the Finance Committee, Select Board, Hampshire Regional School Committee, Norris School Committee, and at-large residents. The board also voted unanimously to appoint Andrea LeClaire as interim director of the Edwards Public Library at a Step I1 hourly rate of $31.54, leaving her former youth-librarian position vacant to comply with a town hiring freeze.

Senior Center Director Kate DeSanto told the board that 2025 attendance rose 20 percent and that more than 150 residents were served during Medicare open enrollment, pressing for interim space inside town hall she described as "five staff members sharing one office." The board voted to authorize Scott to identify candidates for an insurance broker — required under the town's planned July 1 transition to the GIC — with Pete Roth and Steve Corbin of Dowd Insurance named as prospects pending formal presentations.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of January 20, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.