Eight reasons to vote NO on the new FS1 plan (Ballot Question 10)

[NOTE: This is what I read from when I spoke at FS1 Town Meeting. But since there was a 2-minute time limit for speaking, I could only cover part of it. I was asked to post the whole thing.]

After Westwood voters TWICE rejected the town’s extravagant $38 million FS1 design, our officials promised us a cost-effective redesign. It was hoped that getting citizens involved would make a difference. But despite the splashy marketing hype, this new $39.98 million design
is still bloated and not cost-effective.

1. At an incredible $1,378 per square foot, this plan appears to be the most expensive municipal building design per square foot ever proposed in Massachusetts history. We are paying luxury, urban-skyscraper prices for a suburban station built on flat, town-owned land.

2. Peer towns like Rockland and Tyngsborough recently designed modern, fully compliant fire stations costing under $27 million.

3. This plan features ten office, conference, and administrative spaces, well beyond what peer towns build.

4. This plan unnecessarily duplicates the modern training classroom facility already built at the Police Station less than a mile away.

5. The town claims the new design is 19% smaller than the 36,083 square foot previous design. In reality, it mostly eliminates the expensive storage basement that was only necessary for the old sloped site. The actual active rooms, offices, and operational footprint on the main levels have not significantly changed.

6. The average size of a main fire station for a peer community in Massachusetts ranges from 12,000 to 21,000 square feet. At 29,000 square feet, this station remains unnecessarily large compared to standard municipal needs and represents an oversized long-term maintenance burden.

7. We are being asked to cast binding votes at Town Meeting before the 100% completed schematic design reports and final engineering feasibility studies are compiled and published for citizens to audit. A responsible town process means reviewing a finished, finalized plan before locking in a nearly $40 million budget.

8. Westwood’s property taxes are already nearly double
the Massachusetts average and over four times the national average. This will add $343 to the average property tax bill. And more tax increases lie ahead for major capital projects for the Thurston Middle School and Sheehan Elementary School. We cannot afford luxurious overspending now.

All we are asking for is a reasonable fire station design like other communities our size are building. That’s not too much to ask. Reject this outrageous re-design. Vote NO on Ballot Question 10.