Boxborough Finance Committee Moves Fire Command Vehicle to Free Cash, Restructures Police Training Request

BOXBOROUGH -- February 11, 2025, Boxborough Finance Committee backs fire command vehicle and restructures police training spending. The committee, meeting February 11, agreed to move an $80,000 fire department command response vehicle from bonded financing to free cash after Fire Chief, whose name was not clearly captured in the audio, described nights when a single firefighter is left covering the station while two colleagues wait at Emerson Hospital with the ambulance, unable to meet OSHA's two-in-two-out standard for structure entry. A $75,000-to-$80,000 Utility Task Vehicle for conservation-land rescues and brush fires was also placed in free cash. On the police side, an $11,750 expenditure for a three-week Police Executive Research Forum command course for the department's lieutenant was pulled from the operating budget and will appear instead as a stand-alone warrant article for "command-level training." The committee's one formal vote approved the town clerk's budget at $137,877, $124,703 in salaries and $13,174 in non-salary costs, unanimously. The current gap between projected town spending and the maximum levy stands at $821,538, with collective bargaining agreements still unresolved.