Select Board looks to determine possible future of old police station

After Town Meeting members voted to indefinitely postpone the Select Board’s request for authorization to sell the old police station at the 2024 Spring Town Meeting, the Board is now looking into repurposing the building.

Select Board members voted 4-1 on Monday, April 7 to submit a short form letter of interest to MassDevelopment for consideration of a grant to explore using the old police station for either affordable housing or a more advantageous use.

Member Stanley Mickelson voted against submitting a letter, explaining he thinks the station should be demolished.

Located at 249 Russells Mills Road, the station was abandoned in 2014 after legionella bacteria, which can cause a severe type of pneumonia called Legionnaires’ disease, was discovered in the plumbing.

The decision comes after years of back and forth regarding the building’s future, beginning with initial plans for an $8.4 million renovation of the station shortly after the station was vacated. Town Meeting approved the renovations in 2015 but the required debt exclusion was voted down in the 2016 town election.

After being slated for demolition in 2023, the Historical Commission voted to “preferably preserve” the station in July 2023, marking the building as historically significant and therefore not eligible for destruction.

The MassDevelopment grant the Board is requesting is designed to specifically address the redevelopment of previously used public space and buildings, according to Board of Public Works member Michael Gagne.

While the deadline to submit a letter of interest to MassDevelopment has passed, the Board will submit a short form application for review to determine whether MassDevelopment would consider a full application.

If accepted the full application would include an evaluation into whether the old station can be repurposed.

“When it comes to development and redevelopment, most importantly, I think a grant like this would be well received by the town,” member Chris O’Neil said.

Newly appointed chair Heidi Silva Brooks said she has spoken with Mass Housing Partners but they haven’t been able to offer assistance to determine the feasibility of transforming the old police station.

“It’s entirely possible that MassDevelopment …  could assist us and give us this information that we need … to determine how many potential either office spaces or apartment spaces could be made into that building and if it would be beneficial to do that," she said.