Boxborough Select Board Approves $2.4M Fire Station Land Purchase for March Town Meeting

BOXBOROUGH -- January 12, 2026, Boxborough Select Board unanimously backs $5.1 million fire station land purchase and design package for March votes. The board voted 5-0 Monday on each of the three finalized Special Town Meeting warrant articles, approving the acquisition of a 4.2-acre site at 984 Massachusetts Avenue for $2.4 million and a separate roughly $2.7 million appropriation for design through competitive bidding, both to be bonded subject to a Proposition 2.5 debt exclusion ballot vote on March 17. Town Administrator Mike Johns said environmental and geotechnical studies of the site have returned positive results and that a letter of intent with the landowner is already signed. Resident Diana Lipari urged the board to seek competitive architect bids, arguing that firm Context had been engaged since the project's start without a competitive selection process; Johns defended the firm's pricing and quality and said switching architects now would cost roughly $4,000 per day over a six-month delay. The board also addressed a property tax billing error in which lockbox payment files from early October went unposted, causing roughly 30 accounts to show false past-due balances, a problem Treasurer/Collector Emily Roux said was resolved within 48 hours of discovery and will be prevented going forward by daily reconciliation between her office and the town's Accounting office.