Blandford Select Board greenlights gym-to-fire-station feasibility study

BLANDFORD -- March 10, 2025, Blandford Select Board takes first steps toward converting town hall gym into fire station. The board informally authorized Town Administrator Christina to obtain a contract amendment from designer Weston and Sampson for a bare-bones feasibility study, estimated at $5,000 to $10,000, examining whether the town hall gymnasium could be repurposed as a fire station, the only identified in-town alternative to a salt shed site after roughly five years of searching. Conservation Commission Chairman Dick Gates warned the board that two large-scale lithium-ion battery storage proposals are imminent on North Blandford Road, near an existing high-voltage substation, but that the Commission has had no conservation agent since December and a January job posting in three newspapers drew zero applicants. "I get asked all the time, what's in it for Blandford? I have no answer," Gates said. The board also approved prior-year water department warrants and voted unanimously to enter executive session with the town treasurer.