Boxborough Select Board Blocks Senior Transfer Station Charges, Joins Fire Truck Lawsuit

BOXBOROUGH -- April 27, 2026, Boxborough Select Board shields seniors from Transfer Station fee hikes for two years and joins a national fire truck price-fixing lawsuit. Voting 3-2 at its April 27 meeting, the board, with Chair Kristin Hilberg, Clerk Robert Stemple, and Member Priya Sundaram in the majority, blocked any charge on the roughly 500 senior households that currently receive free stickers for both FY27 and FY28, over the objections of Members Samuel Anderson and Fowlks. A separate 4-1 vote held the non-senior sticker fee at $150 for FY27, even as Town Administrator Mike Johns warned the station will run roughly $60,000 in the red next fiscal year, growing to an estimated $86,500 deficit by FY30. The board directed Johns and the DPW director to develop a proposal on per-item fees for mattresses, electronics, and appliances, projected at $10,000 to $15,000 annually, before the FY28 budget cycle. Unanimously, the board authorized Boxborough to join an existing class action suit against fire apparatus manufacturers, noting the town's own fire truck cost jumped from an estimated $800,000 to $1.2 million before reaching Town Meeting. The board also voted 4-1 to adopt a flat $60-per-inspection pay rate for part-time plumbing, gas, and electrical inspectors, replacing a model that had paid inspectors 90 percent of permit fees.