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.