Billerica Select Board Hires New Town Counsel, Approves Manager at $235,000

BILLERICA -- September 22, 2025, Billerica Select Board replaces town counsel and approves town manager contract in marathon September 22 session. The board voted unanimously to appoint Harrington & Heap as the new municipal law firm, ending a year-long relationship with Brooks & Duransis amid board criticism of slow response times, billing disputes, and a missed opportunity on an AT&T water tower lease that may have spared the town part of a $2.5 million repainting cost. The board also unanimously approved a two-year contract for Acting Town Manager Chris Dillon at a starting salary of $235,000, down from his requested $250,000, with two percent annual increases and a stripped-down benefits package. Free cash was certified at $5,362,862. The board voted 3-2 to advance a petition article to October town meeting that would apply an elderly housing overlay to the 100-plus-acre Swanson Meadows golf course, over the objection of 73.5 and 87.5 percent of the two abutting condominium communities.

Correction (Nov. 2, 2026): An earlier version of this story attributed statements by Select Board member Dina Favreau to other members, including her questions to the town counsel candidates and her reading of the Article 38 covenant, and named the wrong member as voting against Article 38. It also attributed other remarks to the wrong members and misspelled the names of several members.