A Massachusetts town is standing firm in its decision to cancel its Fourth of July celebration, citing a state law to justify withholding donations from residents and local businesses.
Officials in Rutland, facing intense heat, say that under state law, they can’t refund donations they received because the money was designated for a “specific purpose.”
“That specific purpose is the Fourth of July events,” Town Administrator Heather Butler said. “Not just the fireworks, not just the parade, it is all of the events. Even to create that reimbursement is an expense outside of what the money was given for.”
The town received an average donation of $25 from residents for the celebration, and some larger gifts from businesses, Butler said. She added that the funds are “simply retained” in an account designated for the Fourth of July, which has grown to just less than $50,000 over the decades.
Butler offered the info as elected officials in the Central Massachusetts town of roughly 9,000 residents met on Monday night. They decided against pursuing a “Hail Mary” option that may have revived some of the festivities and frozen upcoming public safety cuts until September.
Rutland, thrown into the national and even international spotlight last week, received heat for declaring that it would keep individual contributions despite the cancellation during America’s 250th anniversary.
Officials, in a letter sent to residents, highlighted that “some of the funds (had) already been used for event-related expenses, including printing, deposits, and fundraising costs,” and all “donations are held in a municipal gift account for the sole purpose of supporting Rutland’s 4th of July celebrations.”
Select Board Chairwoman Sheila Dibb, who proposed using revenue surpluses from previous fiscal years to fund the start of fiscal year 2027, beginning July 1, described the donation issue as a “hot point for a lot of people,” admitting she “kind of pushed back.”
“Maybe we just didn’t phrase it right – it’s not that we weren’t, it’s that we couldn’t,” Dibb said of state law. “Unlike a nonprofit, a municipality is a different being.”
Worcester Sheriff Lew Evangelidis alerted the town late last week that his office was “prepared to offer sworn deputies, civilian volunteers, and any resources necessary to allow the originally planned festivities, or in the alternative, a scaled-down celebration to occur.”
The town declined the sheriff’s offer.
“I will note, this is not about him, just some irony in that he’s offering the services of the state-funded sheriff’s office,” Dibb said, “when, of course, the structural deficit that we have is because of a lack of state funding on the education side.”
This all comes after residents rejected last month a multi-year property tax increase package that officials said was needed to address a major $3 million structural deficit.
Officials initially tried to ignore that fact in their cancellation notice, stating that it was “based solely on public safety considerations.” But the failed override emerged as the primary reason for the shutdown, with the town admitting to it in a social media post.
“This has been the most disheartening experience I’ve had in my entire life living here in town,” Fourth of July Committee member Karen Greenwood said Monday night. “Social media sucks. … The nastiness that came in, unprovoked, really, if they had listened to why we had to do it.”
