Sudbury Select Board ranks five priority goals for 2024-25

SUDBURY -- September 5, 2024, Sudbury Select Board ranks long-term budget plan as top 2024-25 goal. Facilitated by Mel Kleckner of the UMass Collins Center, the board ranked a long-term comprehensive operating and capital budget plan first with 23 points, well ahead of staffing and succession planning at 12, Fairbank Community Center optimization at 8, vocational education district membership at 7, and a transportation pilot decision at 6. Town Manager Andy Sheehan called the budget work a "stretch goal" and noted the town issued roughly $4 million in non-excluded debt this year on DLS advice. Member Janie Dretler raised the prospect of an operating override to address staffing, while Vice-Chair Daniel Carty pushed for concrete annual deliverables: "I want there to be a discrete thing where 12 months from now we can say that got done." The MBTA Communities zoning goal was removed as effectively complete.