NORTHBOROUGH – With a split vote, the Select Board is recommending that Town Meeting approve an article to fund a new Northborough Fire Station.
During their meeting Sept. 23, Select Board members Mitch Cohen, Laura Ziton and Mike Tietjen voted in favor of the recommendation while members Julianne Hirsh and Lisa Maselli voted against.
Discussion
The future fire station is proposed for 61-65 West Main St. During Town Meeting on Oct. 7, voters will deliberate on an appropriation of $41,364,992 for the project.
Hirsh said that while she believes that the fire department needs an improved or new building, she has “serious enough concerns about this project that I will not be able to vote to support it.”
“It’s the size of the project, the way we have to reconfigure that property to get the building on it. I think there’s enough concerns on my part that I couldn’t honestly support it,” she said.
Echoing Hirsh, Maselli voiced concerns about the size of the project and the land, which she said is a “brownfield” and requires a lot to be done to the site.
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“I can’t imagine why we picked a place that used to be a gas station, which is beyond me,” she said.
Questions were asked about the project, but Maselli said they weren’t answered “or answered well.”
Cohen said the site is not a brownfield and has been cleared by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Resident Scott Rogers asked the Select Board members who were not willing to recommend approval of the project to offer what their alternative was or what services they would cut.
Maselli said she supported a public safety station for both the police and fire departments, which could be built at the current police station. She said there should have been consideration whether it would have been cheaper to purchase the building next to the existing fire station.
“I think it is our responsibility as selectmen to look at the fiduciary as well as what the department needs. There’s no question that this department needs to be in a better location, as well as the Town Hall as well as the police station,” said Maselli.
She said there are other options.
“It isn’t a doomsday if we don’t do this today, then well, we’re just never going to have a fire station. I don’t believe that’s the case at all. I think it could be worked into even taking perhaps the blueprint and finding another location for it,” she said.
Cohen said a safety complex was examined during the feasibility stage, and it cost approximately 50% more than a fire station alone. He said the committee was also told there was not enough room for it at the police station, and the police station is in good shape and may need a renovation in a few years.
Cohen, who served on both the feasibility and building committee for the fire station, said that no project is perfect or ideal.
“We looked at many different sites. We looked at many different configurations. This was the least expensive as well as the best location for properly operating the fire station,” he said.
He said there were not any other vacant lots in downtown that were large enough without purchasing a site for a flatter location. Renovating and expanding at the existing station at 11 Pierce St. would also involve purchasing commercial structures, he said.
Cohen also noted the “backup” of projects in town. The Peaslee School Building Committee recently held its first meeting.
“If we haven’t resolved the fire station, the Peaslee school either has to compete with the f ire station or has to wait after the fire station so that we don’t hit two large capital projects within the same short period of time,” Cohen said.
“In the pure dollars and cents fiduciary piece, it’s going to cost more if we kick it down the road. Recent history has already proven that — that’s what occurred,” said Tietjen.
Town Meeting convenes at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at Algonquin Regional High School. For more information about the project, visit https://www.town.northborough.ma.us/fire-rescue-emergency-management/pages/northborough-fire-station-project.
