North Andover Finance Committee Recommends $7.5 Million Fire Station and Kittredge School Bond

NORTH ANDOVER -- April 6, 2026, North Andover Finance Committee unanimously backs $7.5 million fire station, $79.8 million school bond. The committee voted Monday to recommend favorable action on more than a dozen Town Meeting warrant articles, including a new Fire Station 3 on Berry Street, a $7.5 million, 30-year bond estimated at $437,589 per year, and the full $79.8 million Kittredge Elementary School redevelopment, which carries a Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement of approximately $29.2 million, leaving the town's net obligation at roughly $50.6 million. Finance Director Dennis Cormier confirmed that both projects, along with a $2 million fueling station replacement and $2.6 million in water treatment plant improvements, will be funded through excess levy capacity generated primarily by Amazon's industrial property growth, leaving virtually no anticipated levy cushion in future years. Fire Chief John Weir presented response-time modeling showing Precinct 8 averages more than six and a half minutes per call against an NFPA standard of four minutes, and told the committee the department currently stores apparatus at Lawrence Municipal Airport and in a parking lot container because existing stations are full. Members debated the school department's plan to draw approximately $1.5 million from circuit breaker reserves to fund fiscal year 2027 operations, agreeing the warrant letter would characterize it as "a structurally unsound budgeting practice" and noting that a school department override request for fiscal year 2028 appears likely given current projections.