WESTBOROUGH – As the town continues to search out savings in the fiscal 2025 budget, there was some good news coming from the town manager.
During the Advisory Finance Committee meeting on March 11, Town Manager Kristi Williams reported that the proposed property tax increase for the average single-family home – slated at nearly $1,000 just a few weeks ago – has been rolled back to $853.
Williams credited the decrease to the town obtaining a lower interest rate on borrowing, higher revenues from local receipts (hotel and meals tax, etc.) and a lower landfill budget.
“That’s encouraging news,” said AFC Chair Walter Leslie.
School Department
The AFC also received good news from Westborough Public Schools.
Superintendent Amber Bock presented an update on the ADA project for Hastings Elementary School on March 7.
Marked with a “placeholder” of $5 million in the warrant, Bock said the project’s bids came in with a low bid of $2.14 million, and a high bid of $3.1 million. With the lower bids comes a chance to finance the project with funds already available.
AFC members discussed the schools’ requests to repair and/or replace several roofs. Bock urged support for the request to replace the roof at Hastings; she said every time it rains.
“The ADA [project] and the roof have to move forward,” she said.
The roof replacement project was approved by the AFC, 7-1. The vote on the ADA project was postponed pending further discussion on funding sources.
A $1.07 million request to restore the roof at Mill Pond Elementary School also drew comment from committee members – mainly whether the project could be set aside until the need to replace the roof arises.
In the end, the AFC voted to recommend defeating the Mill Pond article, 5-3. The other capital projects received AFC approval.
