Seekonk voters take up $9.75 million fire station and middle school study at Nov. 9 town meeting

SEEKONK Updated 6:13 p.m. Nov. 4, 2026.

Seekonk voters decide Monday, Nov. 9, whether to borrow up to $9.75 million for a South End fire station and pay for a study of the Hurley Middle School's future.

The fire station and $1.75 million for the middle school study would both be paid outside the town's normal tax limit. Each borrowing vote needs a two-thirds majority at town meeting and is written to take effect only if voters also approve exempting the debt from Proposition 2 1/2 in a ballot vote, according to the fall town meeting warrant. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the Seekonk High School auditorium, 261 Arcade Ave., and the town says check-in usually opens an hour earlier.

The 21-article warrant also asks voters to ban data centers in town, move about $1.6 million of free cash into reserve funds, pay for new contracts with three town unions and take up three citizen petitions over the Medeiros Farm project.

The fire station and the middle school

Article 13 would appropriate up to $9.75 million to build the South End Fire Station, covering site and utility work, design, engineering and legal fees, moving costs, furnishings and equipment. Any grants the town receives before it sells bonds would reduce the amount borrowed. The Select Board recommends it on a 3-2 vote, and the Finance Committee voted 4-2 to give its recommendation on the town meeting floor, the warrant shows.

Article 9, submitted by the School Committee, would borrow $1.75 million for a feasibility study of an addition to, renovation of or new construction at the Hurley Middle School, 650 Newman Ave., with "additional consideration of options for grades 5 and 9-12." The town may be eligible for a Massachusetts School Building Authority grant for the study, and the motion says the borrowing would shrink by whatever grant the town and the MSBA set in a feasibility study agreement. The warrant says the MSBA program is "non-entitlement" and that any cost above the grant "shall be the sole responsibility of the Town." The Finance Committee recommends approval; the Select Board will give its recommendation on the floor.

Seekonk raised $2,565,068 on fiscal 2026 tax bills to pay debt voters had already exempted from the tax limit, for projects ranging from the Banna fire station in 2013 to the Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in 2025, according to the town's debt exclusion summary.

A data center ban

Article 10, from the Planning Board, would add a definition of a data center to the zoning bylaw and put data centers on the list of uses prohibited anywhere in Seekonk. The bylaw would define one as a building or group of buildings that houses servers, storage and network equipment "for which the principal purpose is the storage of data." The Select Board recommends approval. The Finance Committee recommends against it, 5-1, according to the warrant, which gives no reason for either recommendation.

Where the money goes

Article 2 would move $403,785 from free cash into each of four funds: the general stabilization fund, the municipal capital stabilization fund, the building and infrastructure stabilization fund, and the trust that pays for retirees' health insurance. That is $1,615,140 in all. Article 3 adds $48,127 to the school capital stabilization account and $24,064 to the special education stabilization fund.

• Articles 4 to 6: $108,000 from free cash for the first year of three-year contracts, July 2026 to June 2029, with the Steelworkers supervisory unit ($40,000), the Steelworkers clerical unit ($25,000) and AFSCME Local 1701, the public works union ($43,000).
• Article 8: an $84,000 grant from the town's cable fund to Seekonk Cable Access Inc. for fiscal 2027.
• Articles 14 and 15: $43,500 for a feasibility study of the Department of Public Works complex at 871 and 911 Taunton Ave., and $100,000 for renovations and infrastructure at the DPW building at 911 Taunton Ave.
• Article 7: a local option tax break, starting in fiscal 2028, for National Guard members and reservists on active duty in a foreign country.
• Article 16: a home rule petition to let Seekonk tax land owned by nonprofits that own more than 100 acres in town, at a rate below what a for-profit owner would pay, or to sign payment in lieu of tax agreements with them. The Select Board recommends it, and the Finance Committee backs it 5-1.

The Select Board and the Finance Committee both recommend the free cash, union contract, military tax break, cable and DPW study articles, according to the warrant. The Finance Committee will speak to the $100,000 DPW building request on the floor.

Article 11 would rewrite zoning rules on variances and on nonconforming lots, buildings and uses, several of them to match the state Zoning Act, and Articles 12 and 17 would accept Madison Court and Matt's Way as public ways. The Select Board recommends Articles 11 and 12 and will speak to Article 17 on the floor; the Finance Committee made no recommendation on the three.

Medeiros Farm petitions

Three voter petitions deal with the Medeiros Farm project at Elm and Lincoln streets. Article 21 would direct the Select Board to carry out the May 12, 2025, town meeting vote of $825,000 from Community Preservation funds for designer services, sign a design contract within 60 days and not spend the money on traffic studies, engineering or other work instead. Articles 19 and 20 would create a Medeiros Farm Legislative Oversight Committee, and the posted motion would give it power to investigate officials' votes and actions on the project, compel testimony and request records, and "nullify" officials' votes for cause, or votes by officials who do not testify before it, where those votes affect a town meeting vote. A separate petition, Article 18, would let certain listed uses, municipal uses among them, go ahead without a special permit when town meeting approves the project's funding by a two-thirds majority. The Select Board will make its recommendations on all four on the floor, and the Finance Committee made none, on a 4-0 vote with two members abstaining.

How to take part

Registered Seekonk voters can vote at the meeting. The warrant, a new resident's guide to town meeting and the town's 2026 debt report are on the Town Meeting page of seekonk-ma.gov. The Select Board meets at 5 p.m. that day in Room 347 at the high school to review the articles, and the School Committee and the MSBA School Building Committee meet at 5 p.m. in the library to review what they will present. The School Committee posted that its session will not be video recorded because of town meeting. The Select Board office and Town Administrator Shawn E. Cadime can be reached at 508-336-2911, and the town clerk's office at 508-336-2920.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.