Freetown Select Board Advances Special and Annual Town Meeting Warrants

FREETOWN — April 14, 2025 — Freetown Select Board advances land purchase, school repairs, and a raft of warrant articles toward June town meeting. Meeting Monday at the Freetown police station, Chair Sen Matthews and the board unanimously approved sending both a special and annual town meeting warrant to town counsel, with headline items including a $2,460,000 purchase of assessor's parcel 239-038 on Bullock Road for a future municipal campus and $175,000 for Freetown Elementary School boiler engineering and maintenance — the first step in what officials project could be a million-dollar boiler replacement. The board also seeded a school stabilization fund with an estimated $500,000 in free cash and approved $100,000 for park improvements and $50,000 for salt shed engineering. In a joint session with the Finance Committee, Fire Chief Bob reported 150 simultaneous-ambulance-call incidents since July 1 and argued two new firefighter positions are needed, saying of potential cuts, "Which emergencies don't you want me to go to?" A public hearing on a Verizon-Eversource utility pole petition on Chase Road was continued to May 5 after a neighboring resident raised concerns about unpermitted commercial activity at 89 Chase Road.