By Katie Lannan
Lowell Sun
TEWKSBURY, Mass. — The Town Meeting action that put an extra $351,000 into the Fire Department’s budget wiped out money put aside for firefighter raises, in addition to cuts across other departments.
With the cuts made at Town Meeting, the Department of Public Works solid-waste budget will drop $90,987 between 2013 and 2014, and the salary budget for the town’s computer services will drop by $56,149. While still up slightly from this year, the proposed operating budget for the Veterans Services Office was cut by almost 23 percent.
“There’s going to be a lot of collateral damage that people don’t know,” said Selectman Doug Sears. At annual Town Meeting Monday night, a narrowly passed budget amendment proposed by Jim Giasullo, president of Tewksbury Fire Fighters Local 1647, added $351,000 to the Fire Department’s 2014 budget, bringing the total up to $4,497,762.
Full story: Tewksbury Town Meeting cuts firefighter raises, solid-waste budget