Southbridge Subcommittee Clears Year-End Transfers, Flags Ambulance Billing Dispute

Select Board · Meeting of June 25, 2026

Southbridge's General Government Subcommittee voted 3-0 on all items Thursday, clearing a slate of year-end budget transfers that totaled more than $486,000 across police, fire, and administration accounts. The largest single item was a $357,342.20 transfer to the town Stabilization Fund from unspent police and fire salary lines, which Chair Stephen Kelly tied to three active collective bargaining agreements, "we need to take this action to be able to fund those obligations," he said. A $75,000-plus police department transfer pre-pays nine months of a shared cloud-server contract with the fire department, a system installed after a March 2023 ransomware attack cost the town $50,000 in ransom and wiped 30 years of police data; the police chief said next year's budget ask will drop from roughly $100,000 to $25,000 as a result.

The subcommittee also advanced a contested $5,600 ambulance billing transfer after Town Accountant Christine disclosed that billing contractor Comstar's collection-agency partner severed ties in April and began billing the town directly, a change members called unannounced and possibly outside the scope of the original Comstar contract; the fire chief is expected to present a full review at Monday's Town Council meeting.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report, 2,340 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of June 25, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.