Norwood Select Board Votes 5-0 to Put Public Safety Staffing Override Before Voters

NORWOOD — March 3, 2026 — Norwood Select Board backs a $1.54 million public safety staffing override and sends the question to voters. The board voted 5-0 Tuesday to support a revised proposal calling for 13 new fire department positions — including a training officer — and five new police positions: three sergeants, a midnight patrol officer, and a detective to backfill a spot left vacant when an existing detective moved full time to a federal DEA task force. Town Manager Tony O'Neill said the net levy increase would cost the owner of a home assessed at the town average of $720,000 about $93 a year. The plan, scaled back from an earlier version that would have required roughly $2.1 million in new levy capacity, projects $125,000 in fire department substitution savings and $75,000 in police holiday pay savings contingent on the new hires. Fire Chief Bailey noted that Norwood's average first-crew arrival time of five minutes and 40 seconds falls short of the NFPA 1710 four-minute benchmark, and Police Chief Bett said a single overnight supervisor is routinely left without backup when tied up at a critical incident. The board also approved the fiscal year 2027 general government budget 5-0, balanced with a free cash draw of approximately $7.4 million after a roughly $500,000 spike in the Blue Hills Regional Technical School assessment driven by 18 additional Norwood students.