Select Board Postpones Vote on Fire Station Ballot Question

The Seekonk Select Board postponed a vote on whether or not to place a debt exclusion question regarding a South End Fire Station on the April 6 election ballot.

Repeated efforts to secure funding for the project have been unsuccessful. The project was rejected at last May’s town meeting by a vote of 112 – 108.  A second attempt to authorize $9.5 million in funding was rejected by voters at the September 15 Town Meeting.

“I think the townspeople have the right to act and vote fully,” Select Board member Gary Sagar said at the January 21 meeting. “There’s a dual purpose for that building and we’re never going to build it any cheaper than we can now.”

“I support a South End Fire Station,” Chair Michelle Hines said. “I do not support the cost that was given at our last Town Meeting. The design hasn’t changed. I don’t believe you can build the building that you have designed for ($9.5 million).”

Michael Healy, a former Fire Chief, noted a lack of staffing for a new fire station as a continuing problem.

“We didn’t even address the staffing levels at the two stations we do have,” Healy said. “There’s a lot of questions we have to ask. There’s no set plan in place and I would hate to see it go through a town-wide vote, go to another town meeting, have the same discussions that we had and we sit there with no (expletive) answers.”

“We thought we had a plan (for fire staffing) six years ago,” Chris Zorra said. “I did. We just didn’t get there.”

“We are not going to be putting firefighters’ lives in danger,” Hines responded. “I want it but it has to come the right way.”