Auburn Select Board recommends approval on most of 26 special town meeting warrant articles

AUBURN — September 29, 2025 — Auburn Select Board recommends approval on 20 of 26 articles for the October 28 special town meeting, deferring four and opposing two. The board unanimously backed a $4.7 million sewer rehabilitation borrowing for problem-plagued force mains on Goddard Drive and Sword Street, and voted 4-1 to recommend a $2.5 million golf course drainage and irrigation package funded through $500,000 in retained earnings and $2 million in new borrowing. It unanimously declined to recommend a separate $1.5 million Water Street culvert borrowing after DPW Director Joanna Pacquin acknowledged the design would not be ready before May. Vice Chair Todd M. Kirrane pressed the town manager over a year-long delay in processing a proposed traffic study bylaw — the item was deferred again after the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee did not complete its review — while a citizen's petition to accept Whitman Bailey Drive as a public way failed to win a positive recommendation on a 3-1-1 vote over concerns about substandard construction. The board also received word that Auburn has been granted EOHLC safe harbor status on 40B developments through July 20, 2026.