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Select Board approves memorial bench program, several bench installations in Westborough parks
Summary
The Select Board voted unanimously to adopt a full-cost-recovery memorial bench program and approved several bench installations (Lake Chauncey, Veterans Freedom Park, fire station); staff will publish an ArcGIS layer showing available locations and process details.
The Town of Westborough Select Board voted 4–0 on Sept. 30 to adopt a memorial bench program and policy and approved specific bench installations requested by residents.
Planning and recreation staff presented a program designed to standardize bench style and plaques, identify acceptable locations (Lake Chauncey, Minuteman Park, Sandra Pond, Veterans Freedom Park and others), and avoid repeated requests that required separate board approval. The program is full cost recovery: donors purchase and pay for installation (including poured concrete pads and any ADA approaches) while the town administers site selection and maintenance standards.
Policy language allows plaque verbiage of up to four lines (approximately 46 characters) using approved wording such as 'in honor' or 'in memoriam' to preserve uniformity. Staff said each request will be routed to the responsible department (conservation, recreation, or DPW) and indicated an online memorial bench layer will let residents pick from mapped sites and link to a bench request form.
The board also approved three specific installations: one bench donated anonymously for the fire station and two veteran-dedicated benches for Veterans Freedom Park; Maureen Johnson said suppliers expect delivery in November and installation will follow. The board authorized a memorial bench gift account (to be expended under the DPW director) to receive donations and streamline financial handling.
After the vote staff will incorporate minor clarifications requested by board members—specifically contact/submit instructions for paper forms and explicit departmental sign-off language.
The policy and approved installation motions passed unanimously (4–0).
