Here are the posted open, public Southborough committee and board meetings for this week* along with my selected highlights from the agendas.
As always, be aware that changes to the meeting schedule (and agendas) are known to happen throughout the week. For an updated list of meetings, visit the Town website.
These days, most (but not all) meetings, can be participated in, watched live, and replayed from home.)**
Monday, December 15, 2025
- Trails Committee Meeting, 11:00 am @ Town House Hearing Room (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Peninsula Trail Boardwalk Bridge Project Public Bid Opening and Discussion
- Joint Meeeting of Southborough School Committee & its Operational Budget Subcommittee, 7:15 pm @ webinar only (agenda) Agenda Highlights: FY’27 Recommended Budget Review and Discussion
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
- Select Board Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Town House Hearing Room and zoom (agenda with packet) Agenda Highlights: Updates on IT Dept and Townwide Pavement Management Plan Implementation; 2026 License renewals; Next steps for Neary School and potential building projects; 2025 Dept Accomplishments
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
- Regional School Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Algonquin Regional High School Library (agenda with packet) Agenda Highlights: English Dept Presentation; Creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Study Group; FY’27 Preliminary Budget Presentation; Warrant Articles; Athletic Complex Financing Discussion; Incidents of Hate and Bias
Thursday, December 18, 2025
- Trails Committee Meeting, 7:00 pm @ zoom only (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Peninsula Trail update & next steps; annual report, budget updates
*I don’t list meetings that are only closed Executive Sessions unless the agenda indicates the possibility of some action in an open public session at the opening or closing of the meeting.
**Details on watching meetings remotely:
- Town Committee/Board Meetings:
- If in-person meetings don’t also advertise a zoom option, assume that it won’t be broadcast or captured on video.
- To remotely participate in meetings that allow zoom, click here.
- To live stream (or view later) remote or hybrid meetings (even those covered by Southborough Access Media) over the internet, use the Town’s YouTube Channel for Remote Meetings. (The meetings covered by SAM can also be streamed on their website here, and eventually on SAM’s YouTube Channel.)
- Cable Access — Southborough Access Media broadcasts the regular evening meetings for the Select Board, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals that take place in the Town House Hearing Room. (Those meetings will still allow zoom participation.) View SAM’s live and replayed broadcasts via their Government cable access channel (Verizon-37 and Charter-194).
- School Committee Meetings:
- Subcommittee meetings and some special meetings are only available to attend/view live (in person or by “webinar”) with no later rebroadcast.
- Regular Regional School Committee meetings (or Combined meetings based at Algonquin) are live broadcast by Northborough Cable Access here and on Southborough’s Education Channel (Verizon-29 and Charter-194). The meetings are also eventually rebroadcast and available through NCAT’s VideoOnDemand player and YouTube channel (though that can take several days).
Updated (12/16/25 11:31 am): The Regional School Committee added an important item to its agenda: “Incidents of Hate and Bias”
I sure hope the DPW asks for some serious money for road repair. Our streets are awful
John
There is currently a discussion going on about floating a large bond in the neighborhood of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 for road repairs and sidewalks. The SB met last night and discussed our pavement management plan with Mr. Cundiff. It will not be cheap.
Currently, each year we get about $425,000 from the state in the form of Chapter 90 road money. In addition we typically also add about $425,000 in the budget for a total of about $850,000 for road maintenance. That is enough to keep our roads in roughly their current condition.
Every mile of road in Southborough has been scanned and assessed for pavement quality. This was done in 2023. If we want to improve the overall quality of our roads it will take a larger contribution from local tax payers.
If we were to borrow the sums above they would be used over the course of about 3-4 years. We don’t have the capacity to manage more projects. The intent after replacing a road is to do an aggressive preventive maintenance plan which could extend the life of a road from about 25 years to as much as 50 years.
The current plan is to use the state chapter 90 monies to fund the preventive maintenance and the local contribution would partly offset the costs of the borrowing.
There is no free lunch here. The annual debt service on the borrowing ($20 million, 4%, 25 years) would come to about $1,280,000. Assuming that our local contribution of $425,000 partly offset that debt service that would leave a budget increase of about $855,000. That is more than a 1% increase in our budget and by extension our taxes.
This program is currently before the Capital Budget Committee and will be reviewed again by the Select Board as part of the FY 2027 budget.