A Building To Be Proud Of: Foxborough Celebrates New Town Hall

FOXBORUGH, MA — Foxborough Town Hall employees have come a long way from the leaky roofs, leaky windows, and basements floods that led the building inspector to find a canoe floating in the hallway. After 16 years of debate and 15 months of construction, Foxborough has a new Town Hall.

The grand opening was held for the building Tuesday evening. Town employees had moved into their new home over the summer and the selectmen had their first meeting in the new Gala Meeting Room Oct. 31.

“This $7.4 million project was what was promised to the community and that's what we delivered,” Town Manager Bill Keegan said at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The debate over Town Hall started in 1999 with a report from the space needs committee that determined that Town Hall renovations were expected to cost $1.46 million due to the fact that no major improvements had been made to the home of town offices and the police department since it’s 1961 opening.

Bill Yukna, chairman for the town’s permanent municipal and school building committee, called the new Town Hall a great example of community effort.

“I feel the results speak for themselves and I hope you all agree,” Yukna said.

The last push for a new Town Hall started in early 2014 when Keegan formed the town hall study committee to review the state of the building and determine what action should be taken. The funding to hire an architect to create the plans was approved at the 2014 Special Town Meeting and the construction funds were approved at a Special Town Meeting held in February 2016.

“What you see today is a result of those meeting and discussed that were productive, heated some of the time, and always respectful,” selectmen Chairman David Feldman said. “This is your town hall. A building we can all be proud of. A building that represents Foxborough, The past, the present, and certainly the future.”

Above are photos of the new Town Hall.

Image Credit: Dan Libon