West Newbury Select Board Adopts Three Financial Policies, Clears Path on Trash Contract

WEST NEWBURY — December 4, 2025 — West Newbury Select Board adopts three financial policies and redraws lines on trash contracting authority. The board voted unanimously December 4 to adopt a Chief Procurement Officer policy, a capital planning financial policy, and the FY27 budget policy direction, the last amended to require a multi-year schedule — to align with expiring school debt service — for drawing down the roughly $287,000 remaining in the school stabilization fund. Town Manager Angus Reardon also reported that the town's insurer granted a zero-percent rate increase for FY27 and a cap of 2.5 percent for FY28. The most contentious exchange came when the Board of Health, which has negotiated the town's solid-waste contract since 1997, met with the Select Board to address a legal opinion that places contracting authority with the Select Board; the two bodies agreed the Board of Health would remain central to technical evaluation while the Chief Procurement Officer leads the formal bid process, with draft bid letters to be forwarded to the Select Board office by Monday. Reardon told the board that West Newbury had effectively been excluded from Newburyport's dam design meetings for two years after a Conservation Agent's personal opinion was mistakenly treated as the town's formal position, and that both boards will work to update their March 2023 IMA negotiating letter before a January outreach to Newburyport's leadership team.