Pepperell Select Board adopts revised town financial policy unanimously

Select Board · Meeting of August 26, 2026

Pepperell Select Board adopts overhauled financial policy, moves benefits payoff date up a decade. The three-member board, Chair Mark Mathews, Clerk Anthony Beattie and member Charles Walkovich, voted 3-0 to approve the roughly 40-page document, setting a $25,000 threshold for capital purchases and a target of directing 7 percent of the non-education general fund, about $1 million annually, toward capital projects. The policy also moves the town's target for paying off its Other Post-Employment Benefits liability, near $13 million, from 2050 to 2040, after Town Administrator Andrew MacLean said the town's roughly $1.8 million annual pension obligation should free up once that debt retires around 2037.

"We don't want to be putting things into capital assets if it really isn't warranted," Walkovich said of the new threshold. Separately, a citizens group led by Al Leo, which has raised almost $10,000 toward a bronze statue of Colonel William Prescott, asked the board to back a Main Street site; the board instead directed MacLean to research land-control rules before taking a position.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,817 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of August 26, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.