Freetown Select Board Sets $225 Hourly Rate for Blizzard Loader Operators

FREETOWN — March 2, 2026 — Freetown Select Board sets blizzard equipment rate, warns of unsustainable school costs. The board voted unanimously Monday to pay private loader operators $225 per hour for their work during the February blizzard, pegging the rate to the state's approximately $223-per-hour figure; equipment was provided by six local businesses including Main Street Auto, Cape Cod Aggregates, and Brightman's Lumber over roughly three days of cleanup. The Town Administrator warned the board that the Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District's proposed FY2027 budget of $53.6 million represents a 13 percent increase — about $1.7 million more — for Freetown, which shoulders 43 percent of assessments, and that the school budget has grown 51 percent over 11 years against a 2.5 percent annual levy cap. "It's unsustainable, and it's going to hit a wall," she said. The board also approved letters of support for two federal community project funding requests to Congressman Jake Auchincloss totaling $6 million — $2.5 million for sewer line construction and $3.5 million for a combined Council on Aging and library building — ratified a $49,120 engineering contract with Greenman-Pedersen Inc. for the North Main Street sidewalk, and approved a three-year $81,000 audit agreement with Roselli, Clark and Associates.