The following Letters to the Editor were published in The Westford Villager’s Oct. 14, 2026 edition.
Gas prices
Submitted by Jeanne O’Connor, Resident of Westford
I am writing this as a public service announcement to my neighbors in Westford. This past June, as my husband and I saw the rising gas prices with some alarm, we decided to get our oil tank filled so we would have a full tank as the Fall/Winter fuel oil season began.
On June 3, we had 104 gallons delivered at the price of $4.77/gallon. Last week we had an “accidental delivery” because a new driver made a mistake with our address. We ended up with 11 gallons and the price was $5.89/gallon. I used my old Algebra skills and by my reckoning this is an increase of approximately 20% in about 3 months. There is no reason to think that these prices will come down over this coming winter and there is every reason to think that they will continue to rise.
Over the years, my husband has done diligent research to see if we could benefit by switching to solar power. Unfortunately, due to the orientation of our home, this is not feasible for us. We are “senior citizens” on a fixed budget feeling concerned as we deal with this budgetary crisis. We have begun tightening up our house as much as we can, we have broken out extra comforters and our warmest clothes to get all ready for this winter.
The challenges to our budget will not end until the unnecessary war with Iran comes to an end and even then we will be looking at months and perhaps even years before the world, including the United States, recovers from the consequences that were unforeseen by the Trump government before they started this conflict.
I hope our neighbors will be able to prepare themselves and their homes for this challenge.
Housing production plan underway
Submitted by Maureen George, Resident of Westford
Westford has begun preparing its Housing Production Plan for 2027–2031. The goal of the HPP is to assess Westford’s present and anticipated affordable housing needs across a wide range of incomes. The HPP seeks to establish practical strategies for three distinct tracks: housing stabilization and emergency assistance, affordable rental housing, and affordable homeownership.
Among these three tracks, affordable homeownership offers a distinctive opportunity. It provides secure shelter, greater control over one’s surroundings, residential stability, a lasting stake in the community, and the opportunity to build some measure of financial security.
The affordable homeowner makes a down payment, assumes a mortgage, pays taxes and insurance, and maintains the property. But here’s the flaw. For market-rate homeowners, money spent on maintenance helps preserve the property’s market value, and improvements may increase it. Affordable homeowners bear similar costs, but the resale formula limits the value they can realize, leaving them far from financially whole at resale.
In 1994, while leading a Wharton School cultural-immersion program in Brazil, I accompanied students studying how inflation, political institutions, and poverty affected the country’s economy. We met a young physician working among families in a favela—an impoverished community of settlers who had built homes from scrap materials. They had no legal title, no public oversight, and no dependable basic services. Believing that insecure housing perpetuated poverty, the physician brought a proposal to the state to grant the settlers legal ownership of the homes they had built.
After the settlers received legal ownership, the physician reported improved family health, reduced crime, lower birth rates, and striking changes in how they cared for and improved their properties. The physician was right. Homeownership can influence not only individual well-being, but the social, economic, and civic health of an entire community.
Westford’s circumstances are, of course, far different, but the lesson is relevant. If affordable homeownership is to remain a meaningful part of Westford’s housing strategy, the HPP must consider not only how affordable homes are created, but how their affordability can be preserved without unfairly burdening present owners or placing the homes beyond the reach of future income-eligible buyers.
Support Article 10: Give taxpayers a choice
Submitted by Dennis Galvin, Resident of Westford
Westford struggles with a “structural deficit” caused by two factors; deficient local aid and increasing costs. The revenue generated through our property tax has never been enough to cover town expenses. For decades, the state supplemented the town’s revenue with local aid. State aid has been rapidly diminishing in recent years and the issue of increasing costs is very real. The cost of energy, vendor services and benefit costs for town employees and retirees are skyrocketing. Add in recently settled employee contracts and expensive public building projects and you have a budget crisis. Recent estimates show the town facing a 3.1M deficit in FY28.
Article 10 on the warrant for the October 26 special town meeting, offers property owners a choice that can address these rising costs, while easing the pain caused by tax hikes. It calls for a 1% roll back in the Community Preservation surcharge, a town-imposed fee on property tax payers above their actual tax assessment. The revenue from this surcharge goes to the Community Preservation fund which supports open space and historic preservation, affordable housing and recreation. The fund is a dedicated town account; it cannot be used for general budget items. The surcharge which was authorized by the Community Preservation Act (CPA), passed in 2001, is a local option tax. Westford opted in at the highest surcharge rate of 3%. Westford taxpayers have been paying this for twenty years. State matching funds, once part of the deal, have significantly dwindled over the years. State money is spreading thin.
The town’s current CPA balance is 4.4M. 1.2M is encumbered for debt obligations, leaving 3.2M in available funds. Under the current 3% surcharge the town receives 2.5M annually to support the fund. A 1% roll back would reduce the annual take to 1.6M, which is still sufficient to maintain CPA initiatives. It would also return 900K back to the taxpayers.
The CPA rollback gives Westford taxpayers an interesting choice. Because the CPA is funded through the same revenue stream as the town’s operating budget, which is the property tax, a rollback could free up potential revenue without having to increase taxes. The rollback would return 900K to taxpayers. They could decide whether to keep the money to soften an expected tax hike from an increase next year in the excluded debt assessment for library renovations, or transfer it through an override process to the general fund increasing discretionary revenue. In both cases no new taxation would be needed. Support the CPA rollback, it is good stewardship and gives taxpayers an important choice in meeting the town’s growing budget challenge.
General disclaimer: If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, please email Managing Editor of Content Kathleen Veth or westfordcat@westfordcat.org. Letters to the editor are reviewed and published at the discretion of the editor. Letters to the editor represent the opinion of the reader who submits it and do not necessarily represent the opinions of WestfordCAT or its employees. WestfordCAT retains the right to refuse any letter to the editor for publication as it deems necessary.
Letters should be 750 words or less and include the name, address, phone number, email of the individual submitting it. Only name and town will be published. Submissions do not necessarily have to be from Westford residents, however, those with Westford ties will have priority. Letters that contain direct personal attacks against an individual will not be published. Letters that contain libelous content will not be published. Readers may only submit one letter per 30-day period.
