Boxborough Select Board Recommends Fire Station Study, Ambulance Purchase for Town Meeting

BOXBOROUGH -- March 11, 2024, Boxborough Select Board unanimously recommended more than two dozen town warrant articles Monday, including a $350,000 fire station planning appropriation and a $475,000 ambulance purchase. Town Administrator Mike Guzman told the board the fire station funds would pay for conceptual drawings, site analysis, and an owner's project manager through Context Architecture, deliverables he said were portable to alternate sites if the preferred Stowe Road parcel is not acquired, addressing concerns raised in public comment by resident John Markowitz that the town had once derailed a fire station by rushing to a $24 million price tag without adequate preparation. A companion $1.2 million land-purchase article was pulled from the current warrant, with acquisition timing to be discussed at a Thursday Housing Board meeting. The board also unanimously recommended a Community Preservation Act appropriation of up to $170,000 for a new Blanchard Memorial School playground, backed by $150,000 in private fundraising and roughly $74,000 in committed regional school district contributions; School Committee member Becky dissented from the approach, arguing the Acton-Boxborough district should have sought CPC funds from Acton before leaving Boxborough to carry the load. The operating budget article was deferred pending the regional school district's final assessment vote on March 21.