Westborough Votes to Buy Fire Dept. Equip, Preserve Spurr House

Patch file photo

Voters in Westborough decided they would like to try and save the Spurr House, buy much-needed equipment for the fire department and a liquor license for a new restaurant at the site of the Nathan Fisher House.

The following is a recap of the special town meeting warrant voting results:

Voted on Monday, Oct. 19

• Article 1 (Spurr House Committee): passed with a vote of 192-60
• Article 2 was passed over (no action) since Article 1 passed and the proponents chose not to proceed with this. The vote was 234-19
• Article 3 (Tax Increment Finance agreement): passed with a vote of 217-27
• Article 4 (zoning - downtown overlay): passed with a vote of 205-47
• Article 5 (zoning - updates to sign bylaws): passed with a vote of 187-28
• Article 6 (State Hospital Reuse - Land/Hazardous Waste survey): passed with a vote of 200-19

At this point, there was a motion to move forward action on Article 17 and the motion to move forward passed. So, the meeting moved to Article 17
Article 17 (rescind Strong Fire Chief statute): the motion was defeated by a vote of 99 in favor and 134 against

• Article 7 (Fire Pumper purchase): passed with a vote of 175-6
• Article 8 (Fire Brush truck purchase): passed with a vote of 169-7
• Article 9 (HR/Payroll software upgrade): passed with a vote of 92-20

Voted on Tuesday, Oct. 20

• Article 10 (Country Club Building replacement): passed with a vote of 72-4
• Article 11 (additional FY2016 appropriations - amount printed in the booklet for Elections was reduced (at request of the proponent) to $1,200 - other than that, as printed in the warrant): passed with a vote of 75-5
• Article 12 (Library Architectural and Eng. Services fund transfer): passed with a vote of 78-8
• Article 13 (Reduce Chapter 90 appropriation): passed with a vote of 85-3
• Article 14 (Country Club Operating Committee): passed with a vote of 84-5
• Article 15 (Creation of a PreK-Grade 3 School Building Committee): passed with a vote of 92-6
• Article 16 (Adoption of state statute allowing military service members an exemption on vehicle excise tax): Due to some recent changes in the statute being adopted, the proponents moved to pass over this article which means that no action would be taken no it. The proponents said they would look into these changes and expect to bring the item back for discussion at the next Annual Town Meeting in March. The motion to pass over was accepted with a vote of 91-4
• Article 17 was dealt with on Monday night
• Article 18 (Wastewater Treatment Plant Lease): passed with a vote of 88-6
• Article 19 (Request for additional liquor license for the site where the Nathan Fisher House building is): passed with a vote of 83-9
• Article 20 (Authorization for the town to enter into a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement): passed with a vote of 87-2