Select Board Discusses New DPW Facility

The Seekonk Select Board plans to draft a Town Meeting warrant article which would allocate funds for a new Department of Public Works (DPW) facility.

Voters approved $1,600,000 for the purchase of land and a building located at 911 Taunton Avenue at the November 2025 Town Meeting.

Chair Gary Sagar supports renovating the offices and moving in DPW Director David Cabral and some of his staff into the building as soon as possible.

“We bought a building,” Chair Gary Sagar said at the September 16 meeting. “We’re not going to just let it sit there. It’s there. The offices are available and I think it’s short-sighted to just let it sit there.”

Board member Michael Healy voiced his dissatisfaction with the proposal, noting he would not support allowing any employee of DPW to move into 911 Taunton Avenue without a Building Committee being appointed first.

Healy noted the failed 2024 Town Meeting vote, which called for buying property at another location and building a new 61,000 square foot DPW facility. The estimated cost was close to $40 million.

The current facility is woefully inadequate, Cabral said before the vote. Past members of the board echoed his sentiments, saying it was long overdue for a new and larger facility.

“We should not treat DPW workers any differently than we treat any other town employee,” Healy continued. “We have built two fire stations for the fire department. We built an animal shelter. We are renovating the (Seekonk Public) Library. We did two phases of the Senior Center in this town and why are we shortchanging the DPW workers of this town? This has been going on way too long. This DPW project should be our number one priority.”