Sudbury Select Board endorses fiscal 2024 override, full slate of capital articles

SUDBURY — March 21, 2023 — Sudbury Select Board endorses override and capital articles, sends firearms ban back for rewrite. The board voted 5-0 Tuesday to support both the override and non-override versions of the fiscal 2024 budget, mirroring 5-2 Finance Committee votes, with the override raising the levy limit by $745,000. FinCom Chair Mike cited a "structural deficit" in the Sudbury Public Schools budget and rising out-of-district special-education costs. The board also voted 5-0 to support a $200,000 Fairbank Center AV upgrade, DPW office renovations, a space-use facility study and Feely Field Phase 2 drainage work, and 5-0 to endorse extending the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail south to Eaton Road in Framingham as a $7 million MassDOT TIP project. On the citizen-petitioned firearms zoning ban from ZBA member Frank Reap, KP Law's Janelle Austin warned an outright ban appeared "unprecedented" in Massachusetts and would likely face a Second Amendment challenge under Bruen; the board referred the article to the Planning Board and asked town counsel for a rewrite memo.