Budget & Finance Committee - 11/10/2026

The Town of Bridgewater Budget & Finance Committee met on November 10, 2026. The committee considered a Community Preservation Committee request for $72,000 to assess and document three historic cemeteries, reduced from an earlier $200,000 proposal. The project received five responses; the highest-ranked technical submission also had the lowest cost. Ground-penetrating radar is planned only for First Parish Cemetery. After discussion about whether that cemetery is town-owned and whether the application and schedule need updating, the committee voted to recommend the request with a request for a letter from First Parish Church clarifying its position on ownership. No final Town Council appropriation was recorded in the transcript.

The committee reviewed tax classification options but held the matter until the following week to consider comparative impacts of a single versus split tax rate; no tax-rate decision was made. Staff reported a maximum Proposition 2½ levy of $66,286,294 and final taxable values of approximately $5.54 billion. Members also discussed a $3,500 Old Colony Planning Council grant for the Senior Center’s Memory Café program, upcoming capital-improvement planning, and roughly $1.8 million remaining from prior capital appropriations; no capital purchase or award was approved in the recorded discussion.