Response to a Promise

Response to a Promise 

     The following are samples of responses to my previous blog, "The Value of a Promise".  Thank you to everyone who reached out to make their feelings known and help shine a light on this important subject.

         If you have a response that you would like me to add to this post,  feel free to email it to 4todayzhistory@gmail.com.

Harry Romasco, January 25, 2026

Good morning Hurley. As an active member of the group I want to thank you for your involvement and concern for the group. You have done an excellent job describing the past and current situation extremely well. I am pleased to see those that are about to retire focused on this important issue. Delivering the promise is always upper most in my mind. As a retired financial planner I always wanted to make certain that all my clients received what they were promised during their lifetime. As a former selectman that was most important to me to not renege on any votes that were taken to support our employees active or retired.

You mentioned in your comments that this could cost thousands of dollars each year for our retirees. As an example let’s take a 55 year old retiree that has an average life expectancy of 85 and has a spouse that is eligible for benefits. Let’s also assume that they retired prior to the vote taken on May 2009. Should the selectman vote to deny or reduce these benefits the ultimate cost to the retiree could be $100,000.00 plus over their lifetime. Totally unacceptable to me.

Hopefully your comments will be brought to the attention to the town manager and most importantly the selectmen. The vote we took at town meeting in May of 2024 authorized the board under chapter 32b sect. 9e to make the determination as to the appropriate percentage of payment for the town and employee or retiree.

I realize the retirees group is approximately 160 strong. However I would strongly recommend that those currently active employees get involved as well. You may not be aware that the active group that retired after 2016 have already been affected by a vote by the selectman denying them 80% reimbursement on Medicare part B as promised at the May 2009 vote on Article 28.

Hurley please encourage all the employees that are active to contact the town manager and selectman to share their displeasure regarding the way the town manager and accountant are handling this. I understand that union negotiations are taking place this year and all active employees are able to negotiate their respective positions. However the retirees do not have that ability to do so. There lies my position on delivering the promise that was made by vote at the May 2009 town meeting.

Thank you Hurley for taking the time to engage and share your thoughts. As the statement goes “ the largest army always wins.” Especially for the right reason.

Harry A. Romasco

Bill Kessler, January 29, 2026

Town Manager, Select Board, and Finance Committee members,

 

I recently became aware of an apparent effort to modify the insurance cost of retirees to their detriment. Let me first say that while I am a past employee of the Town, I did not retire from Uxbridge and therefore am not personally affected by this potential change. So I am speaking as a resident and a municipal government retiree.  Aside from all of the legal aspects of past votes, MGL language, etc., I find it morally incomprehensible that the leadership of our community would choose to address an insurance budget issue on the backs of retired public servants, those who are least likely to be able to adapt their lives to take on such an additional cost while on a fixed income and being in their later years.  Quite frankly, the words "shame on you" seem appropriate. 

 

While I could be very verbose on this issue, I'll simply say if there is a budget issue that has evolved over the past 6 years, it should not be addressed by punishing retirees who have done nothing but serve our community. I would suggest a more appropriate process would be to negotiate insurance cost ideas with current unions and management, whether directly or thru the Insurance Advisory Committee. Should that process yield something that would impact retirees, the changes to retirees should be scheduled to be implemented on people retiring at a future date, current retirees and those retiring prior to that date should be grandfathered to what they had planned for and expected. I would suggest this time period be 10 years from now, a fair amount of time for personal adjustments. I realize that that seems like a long ways out and doesn't help with the manufactured budget problem now, but it would be the right thing to do, where each of you could see a retiree on the street and not walk the other way out of embarrassment for what you did, or didn't take a stand against.

 

Thank you for your time and I encourage you all to do the right thing and move away from this current plan and develop something more respectful of our aging former employees.

Sincerely,

Bill Kessler, Former Uxbridge Fire Chief

Bev Nelson, January 27, 2026

Hi Hurley,

     I am writing with my concerns regarding the possible reduction in our health benefits. 

     Currently , my husband and I are "comfortable" in our retirement , but we are VERY careful to not over spend -

no cruises or sunbirding to Fla for us.  All our living expenses are figured out due to our income as it stands now. I worked part time  briefly for a few years during my retirement to earn some extra money, but I am not physicslly able to continue with the demands of  that work situation and went to full retirement. That being said, we live off our fixed income now. Any cost of living increase which would be helpful with the purchase of groceries,  utilities  etc. would  be canceled out with any change of health benefit cost increase. 

     Our health would  take a hit also as we would most likely not be able to afford dental or eye care. Unfortunately,  I have to keep on top of my dental because I have treatment for osteoporosis that does not permit any tooth extractions if needed. So, I see my dentist every 6 months and have retentive work done as needed. I would have a difficult time affording that care out of pocket. I also have other health issues that  prescriptions may also present as unaffordable. 

I feel the retirees should receive the quality health care we have been accustomed to .

It may also be noted that I worked as a Para professional and my pension is minimal compared to some others. 

I hope this helps present our concerns. 

Respectfully yours, 

Beverly Nelson

(Retired since 2015)

     I also had numerous conversations in person and on social media.  The common denominator among all of these conversations, without exception, was the amount of alarm and urgency people felt over the possibilities of what might change. Please stay vigilant and ask questions, and contact the town manager and Board of Selectmen so they are aware of the scope of concerns.

     Thank you again for your attention to this.