Lewiston Town Board: Agnello reports on 2026 budget changes; board approves Kiwanis Park repairs

By Terry Duffy

Editor-in-Chief

With the November elections and budget filing deadlines approaching, Lewiston’s October Town Board session Monday was rather light on agenda items.

•Jeff Ritter, administrator of the Lewiston Water Pollution Control Center, briefly updated the board via Zoom on the town’s liquid smoke testing of sewer lines in the Morgan Farms neighborhood that began this week.

The town announced the project earlier, intended to determine the extent of groundwater infiltration on lines of individual residences, along with photo surveys to gauge the conditions of lines in the neighborhood.

“We’re going to be smoke testing, and we’re going to start in the east end of Morgan (Drive) and West Park and move west,” Ritter said.

He said he expected to complete the testing “in about two days” and would report on its findings.

•Budget Finance Director Jacqueline Agnello presented the town’s 2026 preliminary budget of $21,627,284, and announced the municipality will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, to review the plan.

In her remarks, Agnello outlined various changes made on the town’s preliminary version from its tentative budget issued Sept. 22. These include: a revenue increase of $110,000 in appropriated fund balance (from $25,000 to $135,000) due to increased contractual expenses; a decreased revenue amount of $110,000 in real property taxes (from $1,777,560 to $1,677,560) due to other budget changes; an increased revenue amount of $65,000 in metered water sales (from $1,800,000 to $1,865,000) due to increased water sales; an increase expense of $60,000 in the source of supply contractual account (from $886,055 to $946,055) due to increased expenses from the Niagara County Water District; and an increased expense of $5,000 in the transmission and distribution contractual account (from $75,000 to $80,000) due to increased water testing contractual expenses.

Following the Nov. 6 public review, the town is expected to submit its adopted plan to the state comptroller’s office by the Nov. 20 filing deadline.

In other news:

•Supervisor Steve Broderick, reporting for Councilwoman Sarah Waechter who was absent, discussed a $21,918.68 bid to Fox Fence, for fence work and a partial replacement of baseball/softball diamonds at Kiwanis Park.

“I talked with Tim Smith (recreation director). The fence on the one diamond cuts into center field to avoid trees,” Broderick said. “We talked about removing those trees and straightening out the fence so it doesn’t cut into the field, and the putting a fence up at the other softball track.”

The bid was approved by the board.

Funding for the project will come from the town’s recreation account.

•It was announced Halloween trick-or-treat hours for the Town of Lewiston will be from 4-7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, with trick-or-treat hours from 4-8 p.m. in the Village of Lewiston.