ATHOL — In a meeting that opened with an apology and a resignation, the Athol Select Board on April 28, 2025, accepted the immediate departure of board member Andy Sujdak following public backlash over a video posted to Facebook in which Sujdak made disparaging remarks about town officials and allegedly threatened an unnamed resident.
Chair Rebecca Bialecki read Sujdak’s letter of resignation aloud at the start of the meeting. “I have behaved inexcusably. I have insulted people I respect and let down the citizens of the town that I love,” Sujdak wrote. “Poor choices and reactions to current situations that I wish I could take back, but I can’t. No one is more disappointed than I am.” The resignation was effective immediately.
Sujdak had served on the board since 2021 and was in the first year of his second term.
According to the Athol Daily News, Sujdak resigned after a video surfaced on Facebook showing him at a local pub making disparaging comments about newly elected board members Marc Maxwell and Mitch Grosky. The video also included an alleged threat toward an unidentified resident. The recording prompted widespread public backlash and led to calls for Sujdak’s resignation prior to the April 28 meeting.
During the limited public comment portion of the meeting—restricted by the chair to no more than four speakers, each with a two-minute time limit—several residents addressed the board regarding Sujdak’s resignation.
Chair Rebecca Bialecki prefaced the session by saying, “I’m just going to have it be very limited, two minutes per person. If it’s all about the same topic, we’ll have not more than four,” referring to the overwhelming public interest in the controversy.
During the public comment section, Frank Visco, a member of the Athol-Royalston Regional School District School Committee, offered a measured response. “I do appreciate Mr. Sujdak taking the initiative to apologize and resign from his position,” he said.
Resident Teresa Hisman followed, voicing frustration over what she characterized as a long pattern of unacceptable behavior. “This town has allowed his behavior for a very long time,” she said. “I have messages from people from four years ago that he threatened to shoot in the face.”
Following the resignation, the board moved on to its primary agenda: reviewing 46 proposed warrant articles for the upcoming June 10 annual town meeting.
Town Manager Shaun Suhoski and department heads led the discussion, which included the proposed $26.4 million FY26 operating budget. The spending plan includes a 1% wage increase for municipal employees, maintains staffing levels, and avoids layoffs or step increases during ongoing collective bargaining.
Capital Planning Committee member Jim Meehan presented the committee’s recommendations for $1.28 million in capital expenditures. He said one of the top priorities is a $650,000 fire tanker truck to replace two aging pumpers. The purchase would be funded in part by repurposing $400,000 in unused borrowing authority from a 2022 debt exclusion article that was originally intended for a fire pumper. Meehan said the committee worked with the fire department to devise a four-year lease plan, with $69,829 allocated for the first-year payment.
“We’re running into more and more municipal aid from surrounding towns to fight fires that don’t have access to hydrants,” Meehan explained. “We haven’t had a tanker in town in years—the last one was a surplus from the military.” He added that the new tanker is expected to replace both Engine 3 and Engine 4, with one being surplussed and another reassigned as a brush truck. Meehan emphasized that modern equipment is critical for public safety and said the investment would help the town respond to fires in increasingly developed areas without reliable water infrastructure.
Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee Chair Ken Duffy explained that while voters approved borrowing $400,000 in 2022 for a fire pumper truck, the town ultimately received a grant and never borrowed the money. As a result, the borrowing has not yet appeared on property tax bills. However, if Town Meeting voters approve repurposing the authorization to help fund the new $650,000 fire tanker, it would add new debt to the tax roll.
“One thing we should mention is that we have the borrowing authority left over of $400,000, but we haven’t actually borrowed that money,” Duffy said. “If the Town Meeting approves that, that $400,000 will hit the tax roll. It hasn’t hit the tax roll yet because we didn’t need to use it. So if you repurpose it, that’s all well and good, but it needs to be known that that’s new borrowing under the old authorization.”
Additional warrant articles discussed during the meeting included:
- Article 11: A $5.6 million assessment for the Athol-Royalston School District, including $163,970 in high school capital debt service.
- Article 12: A $407,149 preliminary assessment for Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, reflecting an increase of five Athol students attending the school.
- Article 22: A request for $100,000 to the town’s demolition fund to address unsafe structures, including the long-vacant theater on Main Street. Town Manager Shaun Suhoski noted the theater may cost over $1 million to demolish if federal funds are not secured.
- Articles 34–38: Easements and a proposed tax increment financing (TIF) agreement to support downtown revitalization, including the development of a 43-unit mixed-use building at the former parking deck site behind South Street. The project would feature residential units above commercial space.
- Articles 39 and 40: A gift of approximately four acres of land to facilitate expansion of the Rabbit Run Rail Trail, along with related easements.
- Article 43: Authorization to dispose of tax-foreclosed property at 469 Main Street for future redevelopment.
- Article 44: A request to refile rent control legislation for mobile home parks. This article seeks voter approval to refile special legislation with the state to establish a rent control board for manufactured housing communities in Athol. A similar version was approved at Fall Town Meeting in 2021 but stalled at the state level. If passed again, the town would request that local legislators reintroduce the measure to regulate rent increases in mobile home parks such as Miller’s Woods and Riverbend.
- Article 45: Elimination of a redundant revolving fund for receivership properties. This article proposes special legislation to dissolve an obsolete revolving fund created for demolition work on receivership properties. The town had mistakenly received authorization for two funds and now seeks to close the nearly-depleted account and transfer its balance—just over $100—into the main demolition account for simplified management.
- Article 46: A cost-of-living adjustment for senior and widow property tax exemptions. This article would adopt a local option under the state’s Hero Act to apply annual CPI-based increases to the $175 property tax exemption granted to eligible seniors and widows. The first-year cost to the town is estimated at approximately $297.
The meeting concluded with support for transferring $121,889 in unspent funds to the capital stabilization fund—a move Suhoski and Meehan said would help strengthen financial flexibility in future years.
Assistant Town Clerk Leanna Dennis told the Athol Daily News that a special election will be called to fill Sujdak’s vacant seat, though a date has not yet been set.
The annual town meeting is scheduled for June 10 at Memorial Hall.
