Sturbridge Select Board Pulls $250,000 Sidewalk Plow From Capital Plan

Select Board · Meeting of March 16, 2026

Sturbridge OKs a $1.85 million FY27 budget increase, tables a $250,000 sidewalk plow. The Select Board heard Town Administrator Robin warn that excess tax levy capacity has shrunk to just $9, with health insurance up 13.7 percent and retirement costs up 8.6 percent driving the 5.7 percent municipal budget increase. Finance Committee chair Kevin Smith noted the town "used aggressive revenue assumptions to balance the budget." Board member Kaidon Phillips pushed back on a proposed $250,000 sidewalk snowplow machine, and the board voted to strip it from the capital plan pending further study, possibly revisiting it at a fall special town meeting.

Clerk Mary Dowling cast the board's only dissenting vote of the night, opposing bonding language on a $1.5 million wastewater treatment plant repair article. The board also appointed Anthony Minucci as a full-time dispatcher at $24.24 an hour and approved raising library accessible-deck project funding to $130,000.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of March 16, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.