Select Board Advances Fire Station Study, Defers Site
Select Board · Meeting of September 8, 2026
Wellesley Select Board presses pause on fire station siting, keeps process moving. Board members spent nearly two hours questioning the scoring matrix behind Context Architecture's recommendation to put a new $65 million to $73 million fire department headquarters on the town-owned North 40, but took no site vote, instead approving a Project Proposal Form to keep the project in the capital planning pipeline. Kenneth Largess said that after reshuffling the site-selection weightings repeatedly, "the response was exactly the same" every time.
Beth Sullivan Woods said she was "horrified" that fixing firefighter decontamination deficiencies could take seven years. The board also appointed Marco Gatti to the Municipal Light Board, approved a $13,000-a-year weights and measures contract with Norfolk County, and voted a 16-article warrant for the Nov. 9 special town meeting that would establish, but not fund, a capital stabilization account.
In the full story:
- Who Was There
- Organizations And Documents Referenced
- The complete report — 3,994 words
Source: the Select Board meeting of September 8, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
Keep reading with a 30-day free trial
Subscribe to Wellesley News to keep reading this post and get 30 days of free access to the full post archives.
Starting a trial requires a payment method. After 30 free days your subscription begins at the price shown at checkout and renews automatically until you cancel. You can cancel anytime from your account. Subscription terms
A subscription gets you:
- Subscriber-only posts and full archive
- Post comments and join the community
- 24x7 access to local news