Townsend Finance Committee Flags Band Concert Funding Shortfall, Eyes Revolving Fund

TOWNSEND — April 9, 2026 — Townsend Finance Committee scrutinizes a $9,050 band concert budget and presses coordinator to pursue outside fundraising. At the April 9 meeting, longtime band coordinator Betty May told the four-member committee that the band services budget has dropped from $14,900 to $9,050 for fiscal year 2027, enough to cover roughly seven concerts at $1,300 to $1,400 each, with a separate $15,855 combined appropriation covering Memorial Day and the summer series. May said current-year June funding of $2,600 "doesn't quite even cover two" concerts. Members encouraged May to form a Friends of the Band Concert organization and establish a revolving fund through the town accountant, noting two Cultural Council grants May had already secured were being routed into such an account. The committee also flagged multiple line items in the omnibus FY27 budget showing overages of 200 to 534 percent, including Board of Health office supplies and Cemetery and Parks building maintenance, and agreed to research the figures before a scheduled April 23 public budget hearing.