PLYMPTON — September 15, 2026 — Every Plympton department head will be asked for two budgets this fall: one at level services, and a second at level services minus 5 to 10 percent. Town Administrator Robert Fennessy told the Board of Selectmen that last year’s budget was balanced with stabilization and free cash that is no longer there, and that the Finance Committee has begun discussing an override.
The Full Story
Money drawn from stabilization and free cash to close last year’s gap does not come back, so the town begins this cycle already behind.
“There may be an issue that they may want to look at an override,” Fennessy said, describing a Finance Committee discussion the night before. He added that it is not on the table yet, and that the first step is to see what the department budgets actually come in at.
The second draft, at 5 to 10 percent below level services, is meant to protect staffing as far as possible — and Fennessy expects some departments to say they cannot do it, because staff is all they have to cut. The department head meeting is set for the third week of September.
Chair Nathaniel Sides added a complication. The town is buying an ambulance, and the purchase will consume most of the ambulance receipts fund — money the town has been using to offset salaries. That subsidy may not be there next year.
It is a deal the town did not go looking for. The manufacturer contacted Plympton’s fire chief about a rig that had been ordered for the city of Worcester, which backed out. It fits Plympton’s station, which limits the size of vehicle the town can buy at all. The vehicle is $384,698; with the upfit, the cots and the rest, it comes to about $414,000.
What the town is buying is mostly time. A new ambulance ordered today is roughly two and a half years out; this one should be available sometime after April 1. Fennessy said prices are rising 10 to 15 percent next year, and that the current older ambulance — around 12 or 13 years old and, according to the chief, underpowered since the day it arrived — needs about $12,000 in repairs the town will now avoid.
