Voters Nix Funding for New Fire Station

UPDATE: Town Clerk Nancy Yendriga made the results official at about 10:30 a.m. on May 16.

Unofficial results released at 9 p.m. May 15 by Nancy Yendriga show that the to fund an $11.2 million fire station has failed. With 1,587 votes, approximately 14 percent of the 11,097 eligible voters, the proposal was defeated 912-672.

“The vote today was unfortunate as the fire station remains the Town's most pressing capital need,” Town Manager Jim Malloy told Westborough Patch.  

The ballot question read as follows: Shall the town of Westborough be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition 2 1/2, so called, the amounts required to pay for the bonds to be issued in order to construct a new fire station?

The vote broke down as follows:

PCT 1

PCT 2

PCT 3

PCT 4

PCT 5

TOTAL

YES

101

73

149

206

143

672

NO

87

99

203

267

256

912

BLANKS

0

0

3

0

0

3

TOTAL

188

172

355

473

399

1587

At a on March 17, voters approved a measure which appropriated $11,208,000 for construction of a new fire station. Because the article was written to include a debt exclusion, a separate vote permitting that exclusion was required. The no vote in the May 15 Special Town Election nulls the March 17 approval for the project. For the project to proceed, it will again have to be presented to voters at a future town meeting, presumably with a different method of funding.

“I'm sure the Municipal Building Committee will be meeting in the next several days to discuss further, but that it's very likely this will be back before the voters at the Fall Town Meeting,” said Malloy.

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