At an hour-long Special Town Meeting held on Monday night, October 26, in Westwood High School's auditorium, residents overwhelmingly voted to approve Article I, authorizing the budget and borrowing required for a rebooted and scaled-down Fire Station 1 (FS1) project. As proposed by Westwood Select Board, FS1 will be built at the location of Westwood’s former Deerfield School with a not-to-exceed project budget of $39.98 million.
There were 594 votes in favor of funding the proposal and 76 against, or 88.7 percent in favor to 11.3 percent opposed. Moderator Jim O’Sullivan conducted the vote electronically, with 670 voters using electronic clickers to cast their ballots. The outcome of the votes was quickly tabulated and then summed on a large projection screen.
Town officials have described the rebooted FS1 project as a scaled-down, less expensive, and more affordable version of the previous, more expensive proposal that voters twice rejected. The rebooted project has been described as about 20 percent smaller in square footage and about $1.62 million or 4 percent less expensive than the prior proposal, using dollars not adjusted for inflation.
Article II, the only other article on the night's agenda, proposed changing the name of the existing Capital Stabilization Fund to “Capital and Tax Impact Stabilization Fund” and depositing $1 million in available school-facility reimbursements into the fund, bringing its balance to $2.7 million.
Moderator O’Sullivan promptly conducted a voice vote on Article II, after Town Administrator Connor Read’s decision to waive his Article II presentation which he said would give the night back to attendees. There was no request for discussion. Following a voice vote, the moderator declared Article II unanimously approved.
Although residents have now approved the rebooted Fire Station 1 project’s budget and borrowing, they must proceed to a second step. They must vote to exempt the borrowing costs of the project from Proposition 2 ½, the state’s law that would otherwise prevent the town from raising taxes enough to fund the $39.98 million project. Residents will have the opportunity to vote on the debt-exclusion question when they cast their ballots in the Tuesday, November 3 state election.
Updated 10/26/2026 at 9:35 p.m.
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