Select Board Adopts Drone Delivery Policy

Select Board · Meeting of October 21, 2026

West Boylston's Select Board adopted a commercial drone delivery policy and asked the FAA for closer review of Amazon's Prime Air plans. Town Administrator Michael Ward said the letter, requested by neighboring Westborough, seeks a "site-specific environmental assessment" rather than a nationwide review, citing noise, safety and fire-response concerns even though only a small sliver of town falls in the delivery zone. The board's new policy, filed as L30, says the town is "not opposed to the service" but wants data on hours, frequency, noise and a complaint process first.

Members also accepted retiree health insurance renewals of 4.45 percent and 2.14 percent, down sharply from last year's 16 percent and 12 percent increases, and ratified Steven D. Jones as town accountant and William Martinez as a DPW laborer. The DPW remains short staffed heading into the season.

In the full story:

• Warrants and Public Comment
• Retiree Health Insurance Renewal
• New Town Accountant and DPW Appointments
• Amazon Prime Air Letter to the FAA
• Commercial Drone Delivery Notification and Transparency Policy
• Sustainable Materials Recovery Program Recycling Grant
• DPW Signatory Authorization
• Winter Operations Preview
• ADA Work List Update
• DPW Director Search Committee
• Council on Aging Donations
• Select Board Policy Manual Review
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,973 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of October 21, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.