Billerica Select Board Approves $800,000 in ARPA Funds to Close School Deficit

BILLERICA -- August 19, 2024, Billerica Select Board approves $800,000 in ARPA funds to close a $728,845 school budget deficit and clears interim Town Manager Clancy Main to apply for the permanent position. The board voted unanimously Monday to release the funds, with the extra $71,155 above the actual shortfall intended to restore a minimal balance in the district's exhausted circuit breaker reserve account; school officials described a multi-year structural deficit from the prior administration that had depleted all contingency funds. In a separate four-to-one vote, with member Michael Riley dissenting, the board accepted Main's pre-title work from 2019 as qualifying toward the five-year assistant town manager requirement under bylaw Section 20.5, relying on dual legal opinions that the board holds sole authority to make that determination. The board then set the town manager job posting salary range at $205,000 to $240,000 annually. DPW Director Fred Russell and Water Superintendent Todd Melanson presented an update on the town's brown water flushing program, noting that roughly 60 miles of pre-1955 water main lack protective cement lining, and that bid documents for restoration of two storage tanks showing bare interior metal are being prepared for release this fall.