Council approves funds for possible new fire station property
By Vicki Greene, Contributing Writer
Marlborough – The City Council unanimously approved Mayor Arthur Vigeant’s recommended hiring of Sean Divoll as the city’s Commissioner of the Department of Public Works. Divoll has over 20 years of experience and has been the director of public works for the town of Oxford for the past 13 years. Prior to his work in Oxford, Divoll was public works engineer for the town of Concord for four years and worked as a senior engineer at Weston & Sampson Engineers, Inc. in Peabody. Divoll will serve a five-year term. He fills the position following the June retirement of long-time City employee John Ghiloni.
Additionally, the City Council, in a 10-2 vote, approved the transfer of $440,00 from the city’s economic development budget to the Marlborough Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to purchase a 1.23 property at 481 Elm Street. The lot includes a 2,100 square foot house; Vigeant has said a portion of the lot could be used as a potential spot for a west side fire station. Councilors Kathleen Robey and Robert Tunnera both voted against the transfer of funds.
“If we purchase this (land) the idea is to split the property with another driveway from Elm Street near Bigelow Street and it’s already busy,” Robey told the Council. “I would hope this won’t be a fire station, but it doesn’t make sense to me the way its (the lot) been split.”
Tunnera issued an “emphatic no” vote and said to his fellow councilors, “Picture a fire station next to your house, how would you vote?”
Vigeant has said the plan is to sell the house along with the minimum lot size of property and recoup the funds from the sale.
