Tewksbury Finance Committee Reviews Fire, Police, and Dispatch Budgets Monday

Finance Committee · Meeting of March 9, 2026

Tewksbury Finance Committee hears $1.7 million in lost grants and reviews strained public safety budgets. Finance Committee Chair David Aznavoorian opened the March 9 meeting by listing eight grants denied due to MBTA Communities noncompliance, totaling $1,728,000, including $1 million for a MassDOT complete streets design grant and $300,000 for an ADA self-evaluation. Town Manager John Curran and RECC Director Brian O'Neill presented a dispatch budget built with an extra $200,000 in overtime to address chronic understaffing and six dispatcher departures in 2025, with the union contract running through FY27 and early renegotiation possible.

The Fire Department reported $2.2 million in ambulance billing revenue for calendar year 2025 and the chief made a direct pitch for a third full-time ambulance, projecting roughly $200,000 in additional annual revenue. The Police Department's total budget increase of $393,464 is driven entirely by a 4.5 percent contractual salary raise, with the overtime line unchanged since 2020, a gap Curran acknowledged may require a special warrant article in May.

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Source: the Finance Committee meeting of March 9, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.