Westborough Selectmen Put Public Safety Complex On Hold
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An artist rendering of a proposed public safety complex in Westborough, which is on hold.
A $30 million public safety complex in Westborough may be delayed after receiving insufficient support at a recent selectmen’s meeting.
The Westborough Board of Selectmen voted 3-2 to recommend that the town not pursue construction of the 63,000-square-foot project.
“The short answer is, it’s the economy,” said Selectmen George Thompson, explaining his vote to put the project on hold.
Bargaining Power
But on the other side of the vote is Selectman Leigh Emery, who argued there is an “urgent need” for the project and said the town could get a better bargain given economic conditions.
“Right now contractors are hungry,” she said. “Bids are coming in substantially less than projected.”
She said the longer the town waits to do the project, the more it could cost.
“Inflation could factor in,” she said.
Thompson said he doesn’t expect the cost of the project to change significantly in the next year or two.
He and the other two selectmen who voted against the project support the development in concept, but do not want to take on the cost now.
Residents would have to approve a debt exclusion to pay for the complex that would increase the average residential tax bill by an average of $242 for the next 20 years, according to town records.
Westborough officials have been planning the replacement of the town’s 1888 fire station for about a decade because it is overcrowded and has structural issues, according to Emery.
The complex would be a combined police and fire station, adjacent to the current fire station on Milk Street.
The town has already spent an estimated $3 million planning for the project since 2001, according to Dexter Blois, a member of the town’s Municipal Buildings Committee.
Incurred costs include purchasing land, demolishing the former V-Arc manufacturing building that was on the site and completing engineering studies and architectural designs. Heery International of Burlington and Jacunski Humes Architects of Berlin, Conn., have both worked on the project.
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