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Select Board recommends $900,000 land purchase for future public safety complex after public feedback
Summary
After residents raised concerns about a prior $1.6 million site, the Select Board amended the warrant to a $900,000 purchase of two parcels at 291 and 295 North Main Street for a future public safety facility and voted to recommend the article, with staff presenting financing estimates and tax-impact figures.
The Plymouth Select Board on Feb. 12 recommended an amended warrant article to buy two parcels at 291 and 295 North Main Street for a future public safety complex, reducing the previously discussed price from $1,600,000 to $900,000 following resident feedback.
The board amended the land-purchase warrant after hearing that members of the public opposed the Tenney Mountain parcel at the original price. Select Board member (speaker 5) told the hearing that staff and the realtor located the former McDonald’s parcels at the end of Fairgrounds Road and negotiated the lower figure. Chair (speaker 1) presented a financing example for the $900,000 purchase: if financed over five years at 4.5 percent, the town would pay just over $1,000,000 total, with an annual payment of about $205,000 and an estimated tax impact of roughly $0.23 per $1,000 of assessed value. Officials emphasized the estimate is contingent on final financing terms.
Public commenters supported the new site as closer to population centers and emergency response assets. Nick Mason of High Street (speaker 12) said the Main Street location would place fire and emergency response near denser housing and Main Street businesses. Other residents raised alternatives, asking whether town-owned property near the Hitchner site could accommodate the facility; staff and board members explained monitoring wells and historic contamination on that town-owned parcel limit its suitability for a new municipal facility.
The board discussed alternatives — renovating separate police and fire stations versus building a combined facility — and said the building committee used comparable community plans to size the proposed complex. The chair and board members said the committee has a needs assessment and rough sizing but no final architectural plans.
A motion to recommend the amended article (Article 6: land purchase for public safety complex amended to $900,000) was made and seconded at the hearing and carried by voice vote. The warrant will move to the ballot and the town meeting process as scheduled; the board noted the tax-impact figures will be updated before the warrant is posted.
Next steps: A continued public hearing on the land purchase is scheduled for Feb. 23; the Select Board expects the article to appear on the March warrant and recommended that voters review the revised tax-impact figures and talk with staff before town meeting.
