Braintree Council Approves $2.2 Million Tri-Town Water Plant Startup Budget

BRAINTREE — February 3, 2026 — Braintree Town Council unanimously approves $1.48 million in Tri-Town Water Treatment Plant startup appropriations and restores dormant reserve fund in FY27 budget request. The council approved four separate transfers totaling $1,479,500 from fiscal year 2025 certified water and sewer fund retained earnings to cover the soon-to-open regional plant's administration, management, facilities, and operations costs for the current stub fiscal year. Finance Director Mike Esmond described the appropriations as a first-year proforma and said full cost clarity may take 18 months, adding that Braintree will invoice its partners Holbrook and Randolph quarterly. A separate $200,000 transfer from insurance recoveries fund 3504 to the legal department also passed unanimously. The council adopted its FY27 budget proposal, which asks the mayor to restore a $30,000 consultant line eliminated in 2023, fund $2,500 in technology purchases, and rebuild a reserve fund to $100,000 — the first such council reserve since fiscal year 2022. The council also amended and passed a zoning ordinance requiring Planning Board site plan review for any project invoking the Dover Amendment, and accepted a $12,000 donation from the Festival of Trees for town Christmas lights, with organizer Biz Inglis reporting a 20 percent increase in tree participation in the event's second year.