Boxborough Finance Committee Reviews Debt Pipeline and Fire Station Site Progress

BOXBOROUGH -- December 3, 2024, Boxborough Finance Committee reviews debt pipeline, fire station sites, and school budget cap. The five-member panel met Tuesday, December 3, approving minutes 5-0 and spending most of its session on a debt-tracking dashboard showing a new $1.13 million bond anticipation note recently approved by the Select Board alongside $329,000 in town-meeting-authorized but unissued borrowing, including a $72,000 Hager Well project Town Administrator Mike Johns said must be committed under contract by December 31 or the town loses the ARPA funds. Member Maria Nayland reported that the fire station building committee's phase-one matrix eliminated 700 Mass. Ave. (the Lions Club property), advancing 502 Mass. Ave. and 72 Stowe Road to phase two, with a Special Town Meeting now set for March 18, 2025. Member John Connor flagged a state enrollment report showing just one Boxborough student at Minuteman Vocational Technical High School while the town transports three students there daily, and reported that under Acton-Boxborough school budget guidelines a 3 percent increase would yield roughly a 5.15 percent Boxborough assessment increase, with Acton, not Boxborough, facing a $1.5 million deficit if the district reaches 6 percent.