Boxborough Select Board Appoints Ford to Fire Station Committee in 4-1 Vote

BOXBOROUGH -- August 19, 2024, Boxborough Select Board fills Fire Station Building Committee vacancy, pledges land donation to town meeting, and signs Nashoba closure letter. The board voted 4-1 Monday to appoint Alan Ford, a retired environmental consultant from Old Harvard Road, to the Fire Station Building Committee after accepting the resignation of Joan Blaustein, who stepped down citing a potential conflict of interest as an abutter to a candidate fire station site. The board also voted unanimously to place an 8.29-acre open-space parcel at 50 Taylor Farm Road, originally designated conservation land as a condition of the 2016 Taylor Farm subdivision approval, on the next annual town meeting warrant, reversing the posture of two prior select boards that had declined to advance the gift from developer Glenn Kaufman of Longwood Homes. Former Conservation Commission Chair Dennis Rezendes called the earlier refusal "inexplicable" and "a mistake," and multiple Taylor Farm Road abutters testified they had purchased their homes under the assumption the land would become permanent conservation property. The board also voted unanimously to approve a letter to the governor requesting a public health emergency declaration over the pending closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center, which Town Administrator Michael Johns said serves 110,000 residents and handled 16,000 emergency visits last year, warning that its closure would extend Boxborough ambulance out-of-service times and strain Emerson Hospital.