SELCO Commission Votes to Send $776,765 to Shrewsbury General Fund

SHREWSBURY — March 24, 2026 — Shrewsbury's municipal utility commission approved a $776,765 payment in lieu of taxes to the town's general fund, level-funded with the prior year. The SELCO Commission voted unanimously at its March 24 morning session to approve separate electric and cable pilot payments — $502,000 and $273,000 respectively, each including supplemental amounts coordinated with town leadership — based on net plant values of just under $41 million for electric and $22.6 million for cable, both multiplied by the town's $11.06 tax rate. General Manager told commissioners the formula "can be anything you'd like it to be," noting that other municipal light plants use fixed payments or kilowatt-hour-based calculations, but that SELCO is "using the family recipe." Both amounts will appear as separate warrant articles at annual town meeting for formal voter acceptance. The commission also reviewed a recent overnight fiber outage caused by a Calix chassis bug during a planned firmware upgrade, acknowledged that phone-desk communication fell short of customer expectations, and announced the hiring of new electrical engineer Oliver Adcox and the promotion of Rick to director of broadband services.