Boxborough Select Board Approves Fire Station Building Committee Charter in Marathon Session

BOXBOROUGH — July 8, 2024 — Boxborough Select Board approves fire station building committee charter after 90-minute public debate. The board voted 5-0 Monday to adopt a charter for a new seven-member Fire Station Building Committee, ending a decade-long impasse on the project. The panel will include one Select Board member, one Finance Committee member, and five at-large community members, drawn from a pool of 24 applicants; appointments are expected at the board's July 15 meeting. Board Chair Kristen Hilbert and Town Administrator Mike Johns stripped a draft provision giving the committee invoice-approval authority, directing the panel instead to develop its own financial procedures within 60 days and return them to the Select Board for approval. The board also set Special Town Meeting dates of November 18, 2024 and February 10, 2025, the latter intended to give the new committee time to deliver a ranked site recommendation and Owner's Project Manager hire. In a separate action, the board directed Hilbert to send a formal letter to the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District demanding answers before it accepts a proposed FY2025 budget amendment that would raise the district budget from $114.3 million to $116 million using reserves — with Finance Committee member Maria warning that failure to reset the baseline for FY2026 negotiations would cost Boxborough roughly $300,000 in additional assessment.