Marlborough City Council approves fire station purchase as disagreement with mayor continues

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Marlborough City Council approves fire station purchase as disagreement with mayor continues
City Councilor Mark Oram sits in the Marlborough City Council Chambers during the council’s organizational meeting earlier this year. (Photo/Dakota Antelman)

MARLBOROUGH – The Marlborough City Council approved a series of motions establishing a stabilization account for the West Side Fire Station and authorizing the purchase of 100 Locke Drive to build the station during its meeting on Monday.

The vote to authorize the purchase passed by a 9-2 margin, with Councilors Christian Dumais and Teona Brown voting against it. 

This allocates roughly $5.01 million for the acquisition of this land, which has been identified as a preferred location for a new station that officials say Marlborough badly needs.

This vote, likewise, followed a contentious exchange at the previous City Council meeting late last month between Mayor Arthur Vigeant and city councilors, who said Vigeant had not transferred just under $1.5 million to a stabilization account for construction of the station despite the council directing him to do so. 

Speaking on Monday, Brown asked whether the project would be stalled if Vigeant continued to not transfer the funds.

City Council President Michael Ossing said that it was important for councilors to uphold the council’s authority to direct funds. 

“I’m standing on principles of what this council stands for, and if you’re going to tell us that we’re going to make recommendations and allocate funds and order the mayor to do things and he just gets to do what he wants to do, I’ll ask why do we need to have a city council?” Ossing said.

Vigeant previously said he wanted to transfer the funds directly to an account in order to purchase the fire station property rather than first sending it to a stabilization account to eventually be used for construction of the new station.

Holding to their request, though, the council also approved an amendment this week that again directed the mayor to place $1.42 million in the stabilization account if he purchases the fire station. That amendment passed 8-3 with Councilors Dumais, Brown and Laura Wagner voting against it.

Dumais said that he did not feel comfortable supporting the amendment, saying that the amount should be closer to $600,000, because around $800,000 of the $1.42 million is being used by Vigeant to purchase the land for the Fire Station.

“There has to be some type of compromise,” he said.

Dumais said that $600,000 would be a good common ground for all parties involved.

“I think we, as a council, need to give, and I think the mayor does as well,” Dumais said.

He added that requiring the roughly $1.5 million transfer would cause Vigeant to “put a screeching halt to the fire station.”

“I just went to Vegas, I did not gamble,” Dumais said. “This to me is the biggest gamble that we could all do. I’m not about to do that, especially when my constituents need this fire station.”

He noted a recent meeting with Vigeant, adding that while he is “not scared of the mayor,” the need for the fire station is “far greater” than the consequences of losing it over this disagreement.

City Council Vice President Kathleen Robey said that it was necessary to allocate the full $1.42 million for construction of a fire station at this point because such a fire station will still need to be built somewhere else if the purchase of 100 Locke Drive does not go through.

She said did not know whether the council would trust that Vigeant would transfer the money as directed in the future.

“I think this sends a strong message to him,” Robey said. “If he wants that fire station to go forward, then he needs to work with us as a council and do what we’ve asked him to do, and use the account we’ve just approved tonight.” 

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