Tewksbury Finance Committee approves $120,000-plus in year-end budget transfers

TEWKSBURY -- June 22, 2026, Tewksbury Finance Committee approves more than $120,000 in year-end budget transfers and raises alarm over water infrastructure costs. The committee, re-electing Richard Levasseur as Chair, Jomarie Buckley as Vice Chair, and Evan Walsh as Clerk, unanimously approved a Chapter 44 Section 33B inter-departmental transfer of $38,693.20 drawn from a health insurance surplus to cover four shortfalls, including $12,952 in Essex Agricultural and Technical School tuition and a $9,000 postage account error, and then worked through 13 additional internal transfers covering everything from police recruit gear to sewer and water overtime. Member Lindsey Dunlevy Tosto pressed the town manager on a pattern of recurring water and sewer overtime, noting more than $55,000 in enterprise fund overtime transfers approved in a single night, and asked whether the town had a capital improvement plan or had explored state asset management grants. The town manager acknowledged the $5.4 million annual water capital authorization is "really not" sufficient given daily water main breaks, and said a Select Board working session is planned. The committee also grappled with an unresolved Shawsheen Valley Technical High School budget dispute, three member towns including Tewksbury rejected the proposed budget, with a July 1 state deadline looming that would impose a 1/12th-of-prior-year monthly spending cap if no new budget is approved.