Ayer Select Board Approves Contracts, Sets 2% COLA Amid School Budget Pressure

AYER -- February 17, 2026, Ayer Select Board approves $154,000 in public-works contracts and a 2 percent non-union cost-of-living raise as school budget remains the key unknown. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to award Duba Electrical Contracting of Harvard a $37,670 contract for wastewater pump station generator connections and to approve a $116,998.57 change order on the Rightway Sewer Pump Station upgrades project. Town Manager Robert Pontbriand reported that the town's Omnibus budget is now tracking below its 5 percent growth target after MIIA confirmed Ayer's health insurance rate increase at 6.2 percent, down from a placeholder as high as 25 percent in January, saving roughly $492,000 against earlier projections. The Ayer-Shirley Regional School District's proposed 11.9 percent assessment increase, representing about $1.8 million, remains the critical unresolved variable; Pontbriand warned that if the number does not come down before the March 17 statutory deadline, the town faces more than $1 million in additional cuts on top of reductions already made.