Blenheim Adopts Preliminary Budget

BLENHEIM - On Wednesday evening, the Blenheim Town Board met to hold a public hearing for their preliminary budget for 2025-2026 while they discussed the monthly highway report.

Despite the hearing running for the entirety of the meeting, there were very few comments from the audience, which was due to many of the lines sharing the same numbers from last year.

“It’s a flat budget,” confirmed Supervisor Don Airey. “I think it’s a good one.”

After the hearing had run its course and with no negative feedback from the public, the Board promptly closed the hearing before moving to adopt the budget unanimously.

In other news, the Board also heard the latest highway report from Superintendent Andy Graves, who noted that the last week was filled with activity for his crew.

First, they’ve been making an effort to move their stockpile of stone from Eastside Road to the highway garage for fear of flooding.

“We’ve lost stone before to flooding,” he said. “This is a thousand tons. We want to make sure it’s safe.”

In addition to the hauling job, the highway crew had to scramble after a recent breakdown from their 2009 truck on Route 30.

Superintendent Graves explained it as a wheel malfunction, as the truck had put too heavy of a load on the hub-centric wheel before the hub subsequently popped free.

This vehicle in particular is notorious in the department for its worsening conditions, mostly due to being parked outside for ten years, as well as constantly dealing with salt and sand that ate away at its body.Luckily, the driver was able to halt the vehicle before any injuries or collisions were sustained, and the truck was towed back to the garage in eighteen minutes from the time of the incident.

However, Superintendent Graves stated that there is no company that carries replacement hubs for their truck, but he was eager to cycle out this truck for their new one when it arrives.

“This is the truck that’s going to be a spare truck,” he concluded.