Sudbury Town Meeting OKs $4.3M Fire Station Expansion

SUDBURY, MA — Sudbury Town Meeting over the weekend approved a plan to spend $4.3 million to expand fire station 2 along the Boston Post Road. Fire officials say the expansion will help lower response times in a section of town that's seen a lot of new development.

Town Meeting passed the proposal with more than the two-thirds majority needed to borrow about $3.3 million for the project. The remaining $1 million will come existing town resources, according to Town Manager Henry Hayes.

The expansion will add four new bunk rooms, a kitchen and other facilities to support four firefighters and an ambulance. Sudbury Fire Department Chief John Whalen said new age-restricted developments along Route 20 have added hundreds of emergency calls in recent years.

"In the past six years the development of the properties located on the Route 20 corridor have been brisk, the construction of Coolidge I and II have provided more than 100 additional age restricted housing units in the most southern section of Route 20," Whalen said in a Town Meeting warrant statement. "The redevelopment by National Development has added 250 non-aged restricted housing, a memory care health facility containing 48 units, an additional 57 units of age-restricted housing units in the Pulte housing units and additional retail commercial space."

The 60-year-old existing fire station building will remain alongside the new addition.