Boxborough Select Board Revives Leadership Forum, Approves 2.7 Percent Employee Raise

BOXBOROUGH -- January 13, 2025, Boxborough Select Board votes to revive its Leadership Forum and approves a 2.7 percent cost-of-living raise for non-union staff. At the January 13 meeting, the board approved the raise, recommended unanimously by the Personnel Board and based on CPI-U and peer-community data compiled by Assistant Town Administrator Rajon Dixon and outgoing Personnel Board Chair Lee Slade, on a 4-1 vote, with member Bob Stumpel abstaining. The board also unanimously accepted a $6,000 Sustainable Materials Recovery Program grant from the state DEP for a swap shed at the transfer station, approved a one-day liquor license for Dirigible Brewing of Littleton to serve at Winterfest on January 25, and accepted $1,400 in Council on Aging donations. The board appointed Karen Johnson to the Council on Aging Board and Brian Ditchak to the Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council, both for terms ending June 30, 2027. After an extended discussion shaped by Regional School Committee member Adam Hirshfield's concern about membership imbalance, the board agreed to relaunch the Boxborough Leadership Forum as an ad hoc body through June, with two designated members per participating entity and explicit language that the forum "is not empowered to make any binding decisions."