Norton Select Board votes to recommend removal of mandatory sewer tie-in rule

Select Board · Meeting of March 12, 2026

Norton Select Board recommends scrapping mandatory sewer tie-in requirement in 4-1 vote. The board voted Thursday to forward Article 23 — eliminating the five-to-seven-year mandatory tie-in for new sewer connections — to the May 18 town meeting, with board member Luciano casting the lone dissent over concern that costs would shift to all water and sewer ratepayers. Town Manager Gould framed the change as a negotiating tool to attract developers willing to build gravity-feed systems eligible for state grants, citing a stalled sewer project on Elm Street as the cautionary example.

In a separate presentation, Assistant Town Manager Shannon McMahon outlined a proposal to eliminate the town's HMO health insurance plan for more than 400 active employees, projecting first-year town savings of $347,362 and second-year savings of $797,112 if employees shift to the high-deductible plan with an HSA; no vote was taken. The board also unanimously forwarded the town's annual Chapter 90 road allotment of $860,247.73 to town meeting — roughly $100,000 above last year — and voted to end the local state of emergency declared ahead of February's blizzard, with $158,000 in expenses already submitted to FEMA for potential reimbursement.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of March 12, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.