Sherborn Select Board Approves Clean Heat Letter, $4,000 Federal Grant Repayment

SHERBORN — November 13, 2025 — Sherborn Select Board authorizes clean heat letter and repays $4,000 in federal grant funds. The board voted unanimously to return $4,000 to the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance from the town's surplus funds account after a grant review found the department had received reimbursement for 20 body cameras but purchased only 18, entitling the town to $36,000 of the original $40,000 award. The board also voted 5-0 to authorize Select Board member Dan Sichel and Sustainability Manager Amelia Landau to revise and send a letter supporting the "Save Money with Clean Heat" legislative campaign without a further vote, after members of the Upper Charles Climate Action Group warned that a counter-bill moving through the legislature could gut MassSave by hundreds of millions of dollars and roll back the state's 2030 climate targets. Separately, the Groundwater Protection Committee reported that 12 of Sherborn's 14 public wells now test above 20 parts per trillion for PFAS and that nitrate levels in sampled private wells average 1.7 parts per million — 17 times natural background — with the committee warning residents in the densely zoned one-acre district to order filtration systems now given a two-to-three-year supply backlog.