VIDEO: Selectmen Put Wilson Street Fire Station Proposal on Ballot

Selectmen last night decided to put a question for a debt exclusion for a new $9.1 million fire station on the corner of Wilson Street and Chelmsford Street.

Permanent Building Committee Co-Chairman Pat Maloney to selectmen for the new fire station: one at the Wilson Street site on land the town already owns and the other on North Road and Crosby Lane, which St. Mary's Church would have sold to the town. That station, including the cost of buying that land, would have cost $9.6 million to build.

After a three-hour public input session in which residents voiced concerns over traffic, cost and property value, selectmen decided to put the question on the ballot for the Wilson Street site. The proposed $9.1 million debt exclusion will have to pass both at the polls on election day April 5 and at spring Town Meeting.

If the voters agree to build the fire station there, the town will replace the two softball fields currently at Wilson Street and Chelmsford Street.