Freetown Appoints Cabral to Finance Committee, Reviews Fire, Police, Highway Budgets

FREETOWN — April 14, 2026 — Freetown Select Board appoints Craig Cabral to Finance Committee and reviews wide-ranging FY27 departmental budgets. In a joint session with the Finance Committee Tuesday, the board unanimously appointed Cabral to a one-year Finance Committee seat over candidates Mark Felski and Gene Fox, swearing him in on the spot. Fire Chief Harry Rose, in his final budget presentation before retirement, said the call-back overtime budget is already roughly $50,000 over for FY26 and that a requested additional full-time firefighter was removed from the submission in recognition of town finances. Highway Superintendent Chuck McCollum described a 2017 International truck with 17,000 miles that has been out of commission since December 22 and cost the town $30,000 without resolution, with a replacement priced at $301,000; a $362,000 fabric salt shed is also headed to Special Town Meeting, competing for $550,000 in available free cash. Police Chief Maxwell Kite disclosed a body-worn camera grant of just under $150,000 covering year one and flagged a roughly $60,000 warrant article to overhaul the police station's failing video surveillance and network servers. Town Administrator Deborah Carey proposed raising bylaw employee cost-of-living increases from 2 percent to 3 percent — an additional $4,650 — and announced a school assessment reduction of at least $50,000 that would help offset a mandatory $30,000 Board of Health contract increase for PFAS testing near the transfer station.