The town basketball courts on Walden Street remain in play as a potential site for a new fire station.
Town Council President Jim Letterie provided an update on efforts to select a site for a new fire station and bring forward a possible debt exclusion vote to fund the project in November. Last November, voters rejected an approximately $40 million debt exclusion vote that would have funded the building of a new fire station at the Wadsworth Building site on Winthrop Street.
Letterie said there will be more detailed information about the costs and details of building on the basketball courts at a future meeting. In addition, he said the town will be sending out a questionnaire to residents to help determine the town’s willingness to build on several potential locations.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Town Manager Tony Marino said the Walden Street location and the old middle school appear to be the two sites the town could be most likely to move forward to the ballot at this point.
“We are still going forward with a firehouse and recommendations and getting a questionnaire out to the public,” said Letterie. “This is something that is not going away.”
Letterie said the town has been working with architectural firm Kaestle Boos to work up plans to show how the fire station would work on Walden Street.
The project would include infrastructure to improve the parking situation for the nearby E.B. Newton building, as well as the Cummings School.
“We also want to talk to the schools about potential pick-ups and drop-offs and how that would affect that and make it a safe environment for kids and parents,” said Letterie. “So this is potentially feasible, we have talked to (the architect) and they have given us a price as to what this type of project might cost, and that price is going to be in the $35 million range.”
If the town were to move forward with building on Walden Street, it would relocate the two basketball courts, Letterie said.
“They are only two basketball courts, but I know how much use they get … they get a tremendous amount of use, and this could be a potential benefit to move them a little bit further away from the Pillar House but in that approximate area,” said Letterie. “This is all something that is going to be very fluid, but we think we are going to have information where we can get some sort of questionnaire out to citizens to see what plan that they might be willing to support.”
Marino said it will be up to the town council to decide which building option it wants to bring forward to voters.
“I think we are dialed in on potentially the middle school site and (the basketball courts) so I think those might be the two options you want to put out there and we do survey questions around that,” said Marino.
While there has been no vote yet to put a debt exclusion for a fire station on the ballot, Letterie said he would like to see one on the November ballot.
“A debt exclusion is different from an override,” said Letterie. “A potential debt exclusion for a firehouse would not hit the taxes for probably two years, probably the first to second quarter of Fiscal 27.”
On a debt exclusion, Letterie said the town typically borrows money at different times depending on the progress of the project.
“You borrow a little at the beginning to get started, you don’t want to borrow the money that you are not going to need for two years,” said Letterie. “It takes three to three-and-a-half years before it fully hits, and then you look at the debt exclusions that will be coming off.”