Whitman Select Board weighs $20 million retirement fund restructure to ease budget

WHITMAN — August 19, 2025 — Whitman Select Board debates stretching a $20 million retirement liability to ease a budget crunch. Select Board member Sean Keane presented four budget strategies at Tuesday's meeting, leading with a proposal to extend Plymouth County Retirement repayment from five years to ten, cutting the annual assessment from a projected $3.8 million to roughly $2.5 million — a savings of about $1.3 million per year — at a cost of an estimated $5 million in additional interest. Resident John Galvin called the move "a no brainer" given the failure of a recent override and the one-time nature of a potential $200,000 overlay account release the Board of Assessors is set to consider September 2. The board also heard that a $101,934 state Green Communities grant was awarded for police station weatherization, library director David Aronson announced his resignation effective September 26, and the town's new Whitman Community Electricity aggregation program with supplier Dynegy launches October 1, with an opt-out deadline of September 22.