Billerica Select Board Recommends FY2024 Budgets, Splits on Stormwater and Hybrid Meeting Articles

BILLERICA — April 24, 2023 — Billerica Select Board recommends $179 million FY2024 budget and splits on two stormwater articles as packed agenda runs past 10 p.m. The board voted unanimously Monday to recommend the fiscal year 2024 town and school operating budget, which incorporates a 6 percent Shawsheen Valley Technical High School assessment increase of $607,000, bringing the total to $179,245,078. The board also approved the $7.5 million water enterprise budget and the sewer enterprise budget. A contentious vote on Article 32 to fund a $65,000 zoning recodification study passed 4-1, with Selectman Mike Rosa dissenting after noting that comparable communities have received state community planning grants of $22,000 to $90,000 for identical work. Article 38, a stormwater management bylaw transfer from the Board of Health to DPW, failed 2-2, while a hybrid meeting participation bylaw amendment brought by Select Board Member John Burroughs also deadlocked 2-2, sending the article to town meeting in its originally printed form. Town Manager John Curran warned that OARS has been presenting Talbot Mills Dam removal to town boards as though the town supports it, calling the characterization inaccurate and recommending an executive session to develop a formal town response. Three labor contracts — covering firefighters, paramedics, and the BPAA municipal employees unit — were deferred to the May 1 meeting so members could review signed documents; the firefighters' contract, estimated at $287,000, carries a 3-3-3 percent cost-of-living schedule effective July 1, 2023.