Edward J. Giroux

Edward J. Giroux, known in town meeting as Ed Giroux, has been one of the most active figures in Billerica's representative government since 2001, serving as a Town Meeting member for Precinct Two, as chairman of the Finance Committee, as a member of the Select Board from 2017 to 2020, and from 2022 on the Planning Board. He first entered Town Meeting in 2001, elected by the Precinct Two caucus to fill a vacancy, and won election in his own right the next year; he has been returned by the precinct's voters ever since, most recently in 2025. In the same years he was a member of the committee of the town's Scholarship Foundation, which in 2002, its fifteenth year, reported 140 scholarships awarded to Billerica students.

He was on the Finance Committee by 2003, was its vice chairman by 2006 and served as its chairman for most of the years from 2010 to 2017, giving the committee's recommendations to town meeting on the town budget and warrant articles. In 2011 "Finance Chairman Edward Giroux" led the Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of town meeting, and in 2015 he joined the moderator, the town clerk and the town manager in the orientation session for newly elected Town Meeting representatives. He also chaired the committees that rewrote the town's basic laws. As chairman of the Charter Review Committee formed in 2005, he presented its revisions of the Billerica Home Rule Charter to the fall town meeting of 2007, which adopted them section by section, among them a limit of five years on the town manager's contract and an annual review of the manager's job performance by the selectmen. He chaired the General By-law Review Committee in the early 2010s, presenting its report and its changes to the general by-laws in 2013, and he sat on the Charter Committee whose 2016 amendments to the charter town meeting approved.

Giroux ran for selectman in April 2016 and finished fourth in a field of four for two seats. He ran again in April 2017 and was elected, second to Michael S. Rosa with 1,605 votes. On the board he served as vice chairman under Andrew N. Deslaurier, then as secretary, and in 2019 to 2020 as chairman, signing the warrants for town meeting. His years on the board saw the building of the new Billerica Memorial High School, the completion of the Boston Road North revitalization and the MassWorks streetscape at the Center, the town's purchase of its street lights for conversion to LED lighting, its pursuit of Green Community designation, and the start of studies for a new fire station at Pinehurst. He sought re-election in 2020 and finished third, with 2,091 votes, behind Rosa and John Burrows.

After leaving the board he remained active in town meeting. In 2022 he submitted a petition article to the special town meeting to limit members of the Select Board and the School Committee to six terms. He was elected to the Planning Board in 2022 and served as its vice chairman in 2022 and 2023, when the board updated its subdivision rules, completed a comprehensive zoning audit and began the town's zoning work under the state's MBTA Communities law. In 2024 he was one of the three Planning Board members who submitted a version of the MBTA Communities Multi-Family Overlay District to town meeting. Re-elected to the Planning Board in 2025 with the most votes of any candidate, he has also served as the Finance Committee's appointee to the Yankee Doodle Bike Path Committee and as the Planning Board's member of the Street Acceptance and Discontinuance Committee.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 2002, Scholarship Foundation report: Ed Giroux a member of the Foundation Committee; 140 scholarships awarded in June 2002
2. Billerica Town Report 2006, appointed officers: Charter Review Committee, Edward Giroux, Chairman
3. Billerica Town Report 2008, fall town meeting Article 29: Charter Review Chairman Giroux explained the charter revisions
4. Billerica Town Report 2010, appointed officers: Finance Committee, Edward Giroux, Chairman; General By-law Review Committee, Edward J. Giroux, Chairman
5. Billerica Town Report 2013, town meeting Article 36 presented by Ed Giroux, Chairman of the General By-law Review Committee
6. Billerica Town Report 2016, town election of April 2, 2016: selectman, Edward J. Giroux 2,539 (not elected)
7. Billerica Town Report 2017, town election of April 1, 2017: selectman, Michael S. Rosa 1,874, Edward J. Giroux 1,605 (elected)
8. Billerica Town Report 2019, report of the Town Manager and Board of Selectmen (LED street lights, Green Communities, Pinehurst fire station studies)
9. Billerica FY20 Annual Report, town election: selectmen, Rosa 3,403, Burrows 2,845, Edward J. Giroux 2,091 (not re-elected); warrants signed by Edward J. Giroux, Chairman
10. Billerica FY22 Annual Report, special town meeting warrant: petition article on Select Board and School Committee term limits submitted by Edward Giroux
11. Billerica FY23 Annual Report, Planning Board report: Ed Giroux, Vice Chair; subdivision rules update, zoning audit, MBTA Communities zoning begun
12. Billerica 2025 Annual Report, town election: Planning Board, Edward J. Giroux 3,157 (elected); Precinct 2 Town Meeting, Edward J. Giroux 325 (elected)