Ayer Town Meeting Approves $20.7 Million Budget, Votes to Restrict Rat Poison

AYER -- April 27, 2026, Ayer town meeting approves $20.7 million FY2027 budget and votes to pursue rodenticide restrictions. The April 27 annual town meeting at Ayer Shirley Regional High School unanimously approved a $20,720,080 omnibus operating budget, a 3.47 percent increase over the current year, after Town Manager Robert Pontbriant described a "perfect storm" of rising health insurance, pension, and debt costs against flat state aid. The meeting also approved a $1,181,661 assessment for Nashoba Valley Technical High School and a combined $16,197,293 in assessments and debt service for the Ayer Shirley Regional School District, a 5.84 percent overall increase driven largely by a state-calculated required local contribution that rose $647,951 despite an 88-student enrollment decline. Voter Duncan Brown asked about the fire alarm revolving fund; Fire Chief Tim Johnston explained the roughly $60,000-plus fund, built from $350 annual fees on buildings connected to the town's municipal fire alarm network, goes entirely to overhead wire and infrastructure maintenance. The meeting's sharpest exchange came on a citizen petition from Christine Goulet, president of People of Ayer Concerned about the Environment, who argued that more than 500,000 pounds of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides are applied statewide each year and that four Massachusetts bald eagles have died from the chemicals; downtown resident Robert France countered that no adequate alternative for urban rat control had been demonstrated, but the petition authorizing a Home Rule petition to the Commonwealth passed by voice vote.