Amended FY27 Budget

At a glance

What: Article 2 at the Special Town Meeting - October 27, 2026, adding about $941,000 to the FY27 budget, including about $534,680 of interest on the fire station borrowing.
Where it stands: Select Board recommended 4-0 (earlier materials); questions at the pre-Town Meeting on Oct 19; vote Oct 27.
Tax impact (staff): no increase from the roughly $900,000 (funded by state aid, new growth and ambulance receipts) except fire station note interest, about $70 to $75 on the average single-family bill.
Related: New Fire Station at 10 Prospect Street, Town Finance Oversight.

Short-term interest: $75,000 placeholder raised after a $14 million borrowing in June; the amount was unknown until the contractor's cash-flow schedule arrived in July. Staff say the project came in $2.5 million under budget, so interest is lower than it would have been.
Human resources advertising (job postings), the shared veterans agent contract with Southbridge, postage, Town Hall maintenance (accessibility ramp after an inspection), heating and fuel, and three school positions (pupil services director, one-year special education teacher not yet hired, ABA technicians).
Snow and ice: $445,674 deficit less $257,262 winter recovery assistance equals net $188,411.

Eric Richards and others asked what changed between May and October, since a DLS report criticized budgeting through a contingency account; Dori Vecchio said the article makes visible what used to be quiet transfers.
Richards argued the Select Board did not vote to authorize snow and ice deficit spending; Anne Cavanaugh said state law allows it without a vote. This is a disagreement, not a finding.
Members were told they can amend or split the article on the floor.

Vote at the Special Town Meeting - October 27, 2026; no results are recorded yet.

About 30 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-19 - Pre-Town Meeting	30

2026-10-19 - Pre-Town Meeting - Article 2 questions: fire station interest, school hires, postage, maintenance, fuel, snow and ice deficit.
2026-10-21 - Page created.
2026-09-14 - 2026-09-14 - Select Board: The Board reviewed Article 2 with CFO Karen Harnois, hearing estimates of $300,000 added free cash, $8.2 million prior-year free cash, over $4 million in stabilization, $735,000 in new growth, $230,000 in additional state aid, and a $450,000 snow and ice deficit. The Board continued the warrant review to the next meeting.
2026-09-28 - 2026-09-28 - Select Board: Todd Kirrane moved and Sara Rufli seconded a recommendation to approve Article 2's $941,217 in supplemental appropriations; the motion passed 4-0. The Board also said it intended to fund the net FY2026 snow deficit from free cash through an amendment to Article 2.
2026-09-23 - 2026-09-23 - Finance Committee: Finance Committee recommended Article 2 ($941,217 supplemental) as written after questions on a $534,680 fire station interest increase and $125,351 in school requests funded from added Chapter 70 aid.
2026-09-02 - 2026-09-02 - School Committee: Approved the school department increase for Article 2 at the October 27 fall town meeting: a one-year high school special education teacher, one-to-one support staff, and pupil services director salary; read as $125,351 (from auto-captions).