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As override fears loom, here’s what could be cut in Northborough By Shealagh Sullivan Reporter NORTHBOROUGH – At the town’s annual Financial Summit, the Northborough Select Board, Financial Planning Committee, Appropriations Committee, and School Committee heard budget presentations for fiscal year 2027 from all municipal departments. This year, department heads were asked to prepare a “level-service” budget — an operating budget for fiscal year 2027 that reflects the same level of services offered this year — and a “level-funded” budget, which would maintain the same dollar amount of funding going forward. Northborough
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Vol. 51 | No. 37 | September 12, 2025
‘ We’re going to end this problem’ Grafton residents gather for town’s first-ever Overdose Awareness Vigil
Shrewsbury man arrested after alleged sexual abuse of children
SHREWSBURY | 24 Indoor golf simulator center to come to Rte. 9
Summit | 6
After tragic shooting, Shrewsbury remembers victim By Evan Walsh Managing Editor SHREWSBURY – After tragedy, the Shrewsbury community is rallying to support a local family. On Aug. 28, Kevin Doherty, 56, was shot and killed near Jordan Pond while returning from dropping off his 6-yearold son at Coolidge Elementary School. The shooting occurred after Doherty took a photo of an individual vandalizing a bridge along the path, prompting an altercation. The shooting suspect, Snehal A. Srivastava, 26, surrendered to police. Srivastava was “known” to the Shrewsbury Police Department, having been arrested on several other occasions, including once after brandishing a machete and
Southborough | 5 Westborough player shares moment with grandparents
The Grafton community gathered for the town’s first-ever Overdose Awareness Vigil. (Photo/Adri Pray)
By Adri Pray Reporter GRAFTON – Fifteen people stood among purple balloons, streamers, candles, and flags lined along Grafton Common on Aug. 31 for what was the town’s firstever International Overdose Awareness Vigil, an annual day of remembrance that honors the lives lost each year to substance use disorder. Organized by John Marhefka and Matt Gear, two town locals in active recovery who co-founded a peer-support group called Guided Addiction Access
Points (GAAP), the event honored the 1,314 lives lost to overdose in Massachusetts in 2024. Participants, many of whom were in recovery themselves, were invited to partake in a moment of silence and write the names of those lost on purple flags to honor their loved ones’ memories. “This was the first year that Grafton had partnered with anybody to put some of these abatement dollars to work,” said Marhefka, who is also the program director at The Recovery Connection in Marlborough. “The event is really significant because it shows
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Westborough | 27
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