Town staff predict Dillon’s general fund will be balanced in 2026, based on the most recent draft budget. 

Finance director Mary Kay Perrotti presented the draft budget to the Dillon Town Council on Tuesday, Oct. 14, just before the state’s Oct. 15 state deadline for local governments to do so. Perrotti had previously given presentations about each of the town’s funds but reiterated “highlights” of the draft budget.

Perrotti said the general fund’s revenues are budgeted to be about $70,000 more than its expenditures. The fund will have reserves of $3.8 million and cash after reserves of $1 million. Her office projected 2025 and 2026 revenues conservatively, with this year’s 6% less than 2024 and those for 2026 equal to 2025.

The Town Council in April and June deferred $1.1 million in capital projects from 2025 to account for sales tax revenue being lower than the 2025 budget. Many of those projects are budgeted in 2026, including disc golf course improvements for $65,000; replacement marina docks for $150,000; recreation path resurfacing for $40,000; town hall safety improvements of $100,000; a police department facility analysis costing $25,000 that will will be split with Keystone; and cemetery entry landscaping for $50,000.

Perrotti also highlighted a $25,000 project to replace the amphitheater’s scrim, which is the fabric that runs along the fence; Americans with Disabilities Act compliance improvements costing $20,000; and $30,000 for automated external defibrillator purchases as capital project expenses.

The budget’s street improvement plan includes a $400,000 drainage project on West Buffalo, $400,000 for street overlays and $845,000 in debt payments.

Water engineering consulting firm AE2S NEXUS performed a water and sewer rate study for Dillon and presented its findings at a Sept. 23 work session. The firm suggested the town increase rates in 2026 by about 21% to bring revenues in line with expenses, then maintain yearly inflationary increases of 3.5% to 4% after that.

The 2026 draft budget factors in the revenue increases that would come from the rate increases.

At the Sept. 23 meeting, public works director Scott O’Brien said the town had not followed the advice of rate studies “as closely as we should” over the last five years.

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“Honestly, I think in the end, it put us a little bit behind,” O’Brien said. “It’s important that whatever the recommendations are, that we kind of stick with the plan.”

The council did not take a vote on the water and sewer rate increases at the Sept. 23 meeting.

The total cost of police services in the 2026 draft budget is $1.4 million, an increase of more than $350,000 from the 2025 budget. Council member Barbara Richard asked police chief Cale Osborn during the Oct. 14 work session if Keystone is paying its “fair share” of the newly joint department’s expenses.

Osborn said the costs are not yet split evenly, but the agreement creating the joint department accounted for the cost sharing to become more equal over time and the cost sharing is proceeding “as designed.”

Council member Joshua Samuel asked Perrotti during the Oct. 14 work session if there were any further cost cutting opportunities. Perrotti said she, town manager Nathan Johnson and department heads had gone through the budget line-by-line to find savings.

“I’m confident this is a good budget,” Perrotti said.