Boxborough Select Board approves Fifer's Day revival permits, invalidates police union grievance

BOXBOROUGH — July 24, 2023 — Boxborough Select Board votes unanimously to revive Fifer's Day on September 2 with a scaled-down celebration after the June weather cancellation. The board approved the State Parade Permit Application, waived the field use fee, and issued both a one-day liquor license and a one-day common victualer's license for the event, which organizer Tony Newton said is budgeted for roughly 50 percent of normal attendance, with a parade contingent on whether school bands and scout groups can assemble before Labor Day. The board also heard two police union grievances from Local 200 president Chris Lowney, unanimously invalidating the first — over informal partial shift swaps of 10 to 30 minutes — after Town Administrator Michael Johns said the practice is not addressed in the contract and any change requires bargaining under MGL Chapter 150E. The second grievance, over a roughly 20-year practice of paying officers an additional four hours of straight time on top of their overtime rate for voluntary holiday shifts — a practice Chief Shefchik says cost the town an average of about $3,000 per year — was tabled to the August 28 meeting pending the union's agreement to extend the 30-day response deadline. The board also unanimously endorsed the Department of Justice Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships program, approved a four-day common victualer's license for Nashoba Valley Olympia's ISI World Recreational Figure Skating Championships running August 3-6, and authorized the Town Administrator to review and approve payroll and accounts payable warrants going forward.