Boxborough Select Board Accepts $15,500 Fire Grant, Orders Tree Risk Assessment

BOXBOROUGH -- April 13, 2026, Boxborough Select Board unanimously accepted a $15,500 state fire equipment grant and launched a fee review that could raise Transfer Station charges at its April 13 meeting. Fire Chief Phil Kivlan told the board the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services grant, the maximum available based on town population, will fund five complete sets of personal protective equipment beyond coats and pants, ambulance stabilization struts, and hostile-event extrication equipment, with all goods required by June 30. The board also voted 5-0 to direct Tree Warden Ed Kukkula to assess a cluster of Norway spruces on the Town Common that narrowly missed a Hill Road home in 2019; Kukkula told the board the tallest tree "could hit the house, depending on which way it fell" and suggested removing the full cluster given their intertwined root systems. On fees, Town Administrator Mike Johns said the Transfer Station runs roughly $50,000 in the red annually, with mattress disposal costing the town $18 each against a going market rate of $25 to $50, and that a break-even sticker fee would run approximately $250 per paying household per year. School Committee member Adam Klein reported that staffing reductions tied to the Conant Elementary closure produce net Year 1 savings of about $300,000, rising to roughly $1.5 million in Year 2 and a projected $17 million cumulative by Year 10.