It’s clear that creating the Town’s annual budget is no small undertaking. If you need further proof of that, then you can dig into some “light reading” in the form of a 400-page document that makes up this year’s proposed budget. If you’ve ever wondered where the money goes and why, that’s certainly a good place to start for a thorough explanation.

But of course nobody expects every voting citizen to pour through all of those stats, figures, charts and graphs; that’s why the Town Council exists. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t all at least do our part to stay informed. To that end, we’d encourage everyone to attend two upcoming sessions specifically planned to address the 2017-18 budget.

The first of those sessions is tomorrow evening, April 20, at 6 p.m. This session is only set to last until about 6:30 p.m. so, if you aren’t planning to attend the Town Council meeting that follows, you’re not being asked to give up too large of a time commitment to attend. During that time, a presentation will be given to address this year’s proposed budget and the process by which it was created. If nothing else, this open house should serve as a nice primer to prepare everyone for the special session scheduled for Monday, April 24.

While the April 20 session will be a quick and clean overview of the budget’s creation, the April 24 meeting will get into the nitty-gritty details. You’ll probably want to plan for a long haul on this one, as it’s likely to be packed with all of the who, what, when, where, why and how details related to the creation of this year’s proposed budget.

We often hear folks ask why money goes to one program and not the other, or why the Town is unable to afford new staff or a certain project while they’re able to find the funds for other things. These are questions everyone has a right to ask, and sessions like this are where you’re most likely to get your answers directly from the source.

If you have further thoughts, concerns or questions, then you should have plenty of time to prepare them before speaking at an open call to the public prior to the Council voting on said budget.