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.