By Bonnie Adams
Government Editor

Westborough business owner Doug Curving hopes to open a new hardware store at the site of the former Village Lumber. PHOTO/BONNIE ADAMS
Westborough – If one local business owner has his way, Westborough will once again have a local hardware store in town. And if things go according to plans, within a year, Doug Curving will be opening just such a store at the same site where another hardware store – Village Lumber – stood for over 50 years.
Curving, who also owns Westboro Paint & Decorating, met with the Westborough Economic Development Committee (EDC) at its Aug. 2 meeting to discuss his plans to open a new business at the site of the former Village Lumber store, which closed in March.
He told the EDC members that “things were pretty preliminary” at this point, but he and his business partner hope to eventually run a full-service hardware store at the 1 Phillips St. location.
“Some of the details still need to be worked out,” he said. “We'se still not sure if the hardware store will be through a franchise or not. And there's still a lot work to be done on the building itself. All of the inside of the building will be gutted and then renovated.”
Curving acknowledged that although the economy is still struggling, he feels that “there's definitely a market for this kind of store in Westborough.”
“We are going to differentiate ourselves with products that we carry and the people working there in a small store way,” he said.
Initially, he said, he will probably hire three to four people with another eight to 10 after the business is established. He anticipates that the store will open in April or May of 2012.
“This is exactly what we want to encourage,” EDC member Bonnie Sullivan said. “You'se been successful with Westboro Paint. We wish you luck with this new business.”
The EDC also heard from Tin Htway, the town's building commissioner/zoning enforcement officer regarding the state allowing proposed changes to billboards along Route 9. Htway told the members that the state is now reviewing guidelines that would allow electronic messages to be shown on the billboards. The messages could be related to businesses or public service announcements and could potentially be changed every eight seconds or so.
The town's bylaws do not currently allow for this, but the existing billboards could be grandfathered in to allow for the electronic messaging. Htway said he was not sure when the new guidelines would go into effect but thought it would be in the next few months.
Members of the EDC also expressed surprise regarding the recent news that Westborough's Building Department is in talks to share services with Ashland. At the July 12 Board of Selectmen's meeting, Town Manager Jim Malloy announced that the two towns were close to signing a deal which would net Westborough approximately $48,850.
“I think absolutely the business community should have their say on this,” EDC member Jim Robbins, who is also the town planner, said.
In other business, the committee heard an update on Westborough's new website from Mark Stockman, the town's MIS/GIS director. Stockman said he is working with the company Virtual Town Hall to redesign the current website. Hopefully, he said, the site will go live in early fall.
The EDC also discussed redesigning its webpage in an attempt to make it user-friendly for the business community.
The next EDC meeting will be held Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 8 a.m. at the Department of Public Works meeting room, 131 Oak St.