LAKEVILLE — Lakeville homeowners will start paying for the town’s new fire station this winter. On Tuesday night the Select Board approved $10 million in long-term bonds for the project at 4.38 percent. Finance Director Michael Ellis said interest on the construction borrowing will show up on tax bills in December.

“You’re going to see a series of incremental tax increases for the excluded debt for the next couple decades,” Ellis told the board at its Sept. 29 meeting at the police station on Bedford Street, according to the LakeCAM recording.

Voters authorized up to $21 million for the station, which is going up next door to the police station. Ellis said it is projected to open in July 2027. Until now the town had paid for construction with one-year bond anticipation notes, which he compared to a construction loan on a house. The permanent bonds are the mortgage.

On a Sept. 2 call, the town’s financial adviser, Hilltop, recommended borrowing about half the authorized amount now, before rates climb further. The $10 million will be repaid over 20 years. The town locked in its rate days before rates rose, according to the discussion at the meeting. “4.38 in this market’s not terrible,” one board member said.

The vote also covered three other pieces of borrowing:

• $1,600,255 in permanent bonds for the windows-and-doors project at Assawompset School.
• A new $7 million note for the fire station.
• A $1,775,000 note for the Route 79 project.

The two notes total $8,775,000 at 3.5 percent. Last year’s notes come due Oct. 9. Ellis said the town will decide next fall how to finance the rest of the station.

Ellis said the permanent debt schedule runs from 2027 through 2047. Taxpayers should expect excluded-debt increases for “the next six or seven years,” he said, with relief in 2034, when the police station’s 15-year debt is paid off. “We’re kind of riding that excluded debt wave, if you will,” he said.

A fall town meeting with two citizen petitions

The board voted to send eight proposed articles for a fall special town meeting to town counsel for review. Town Administrator Andrew Sukeforth said the board has not yet signed the warrant, and town officials noted a few drafting errors still to fix.

The two articles likely to draw the most debate came from residents. Article 7 would create a blight bylaw that defines blight and sets up enforcement. Article 8 would essentially prohibit Flock cameras, the automated license-plate readers that police departments across the region have adopted. Sukeforth said that if the ban passes and police later want the cameras, the town would need a public hearing and another town meeting vote.

Because both are citizen petitions, Sukeforth said, town officials can’t change their wording. Any fix “would have to happen at town meeting.”

Sukeforth said he had spent the better part of a year on a blight bylaw of the town’s own, aimed mainly at commercial property, working with a planning consultant. He said they kept running into two questions: who would enforce it, and how to define blight when “two people can go by the same house and one say it’s beautiful, one say it’s ugly.”

“I think ultimately the biggest blight is the hospital,” a board member said. That was a reference to the vacant former Lakeville Hospital property.

The other six articles:

• Budget amendments. About $103,000 in bond premiums would go toward lowering the tax rate. The draft listed $124,000, and Ellis said a late bill for issuance costs reduced the figure. The article would also put $255,000 into a contractual reserve, so employee raises still in negotiation can be paid retroactive to July 1. Ellis said the money comes from the meals tax approved at the June 8 annual town meeting and from stronger investment income.
• Ted Williams Camp. Old parks capital accounts would be moved to pay for engineering at the camp. Sukeforth said the quote was $25,000.
• Affordable Housing Trust. The trust would grow from five trustees to seven, adding one from the Center for Active Living board and one from the Community Preservation Committee.
• Pickens Street bridge. A request for special legislation to name the bridge for Brian Reynolds. Sukeforth said the language was written with state Sen. Michael Rodrigues’ office, and the bridge is under construction through 2027.
• Battery storage bylaw. State law requires the town to adopt one. It is still under legal and fire department review.
• Cluster housing bylaw. An open space residential development bylaw drafted by SRPEDD with the Planning Board. It would require parcels of at least 15 acres, a Planning Board special permit, and 10 percent of homes set aside as subsidized, senior or starter housing.

Free cash has not been certified, so there is no free cash article for now.

Town staff said the Planning Board’s hearing on the zoning articles is Oct. 8. One board member asked that the town spread the word before then, so residents “are not learning on the floor at town meeting.”

Snowplow rates rise 9 percent

The board approved a 9 percent increase in snowplow contractor rates. That works out to $9 to $20 more an hour depending on the equipment, about $12 an hour on average. The board also approved a $10-an-hour stipend for emergency operators with commercial driver’s licenses, who are now paid a flat rate of about $27.

Lakeville tries to field 40 drivers, about 2 miles of road each. The DPW representative said the town had 30 last winter, 14 DPW employees and 16 contractors, and the snow and ice budget finished about $240,000 over. He said the state Department of Transportation pays about the same rates and also offers a $5.50-an-hour early sign-up bonus. Neighboring towns, he said, offer as much as $150 an hour for an 8-foot plow.

One board member raised concerns about paying for the increase given the town’s finances. Another said friends who plow got calls from other towns in the middle of storms, trying to hire them away. “As fiscally conservative as I am, I can’t see any other option,” he said. The increase passed without a dissenting vote.

A helping hand from Middleborough

The board authorized two Community Preservation Act applications, both due Oct. 8.

The first would use CPA housing money for down-payment assistance on three affordable units in a 40B development of about 12 units on Bedford Street (Route 18), near the Middleborough line. The units are priced at about $279,500. The Middleborough Housing Authority would run the lottery with the nonprofit Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, and it is asking for $10,000 to $15,000 per buyer. Sukeforth said Lakeville has about $102,000 in its CPA housing reserve, and to his knowledge the town has never spent any of it.

Lakeville has no housing authority of its own. The Middleborough authority also tracks Lakeville’s existing 40B units. One board member asked what Middleborough gets in return. “Nothing. Just being nice people,” came the reply. Town officials said the authority is state-funded, so Middleborough taxpayers aren’t covering the cost.

Board members leaned toward giving preference to Lakeville residents, first-time buyers, veterans and seniors, with income limits generally at 80 percent of area median income. They plan to settle the criteria Oct. 6, and Sukeforth said he expects to invite Julie Mather, the authority’s executive director, to explain the process.

The second application, filed jointly with the Park Commission, asks for $200,000 toward construction at John Pond Park: parking, fields and drainage. Management Analyst Emily Surette said Zenith Engineering expects the total to come in at $400,000 to $500,000. The rest would come from grants and possibly free cash.

Water allocation records called ‘sloppy’

The board approved a connection to Taunton water for 5 Narrows Lane. The board had approved the same request in 2023, but the previous applicant never sent it to Taunton. Sukeforth said the Board of Health recommended the connection because the property is in the same area as oil contamination from a junkyard.

The vote led to a frank discussion of how Lakeville tracks its share of Taunton water. Sukeforth said the only record is a spreadsheet going back 20 to 25 years. “I’ll just say sloppy,” he said, and much of it has no backup. Taunton tracks only actual use, he said: about 180,000 gallons a day. But some allocations sit unused. The former hospital site holds 65,000 to 70,000 gallons a day, and another property has held about 70,000 since 2004.

Once those properties are built out, “we’re not going to have any,” Sukeforth said. That is why the town is pursuing an amendment to its intermunicipal agreement with Taunton. The board’s motion reserved the right to change or rescind the approval if water use or the building’s use changes.

‘The responsibility but not the authority’

Near the end of the meeting, the board read into the record a resignation letter from Rodney Dixon. Dixon has served on the Master Plan Implementation Committee since 2008 and chaired it for nearly as long. His resignation took effect Sept. 15.

Dixon wrote that he was leaving over “the pace and scale of overdevelopment.” He named the Lakeville Hospital site, Lakeville Country Club, Rocky Woods, the pig farm and possible future 40B projects. He wrote that the committee, as a non-policy-setting body, “has the responsibility but not the authority” to carry out the plan.

Board members thanked Dixon, and one said his point was hard to argue. Residents contribute their vision to the plan, she said, but the committee has no power to bring it to the Planning Board. “Why would folks come out next time?” she asked. The current plan runs through 2030, and members said work on the next one would likely start around 2029. Members said they would look at how other towns give their implementation committees more weight. One member said a town planner would normally keep watch over the plan. Board members called it a document that does not deserve to sit on a shelf.

The board then went into executive session to discuss the value of real estate at Lakeville Country Club and contract strategy with several unions and non-union staff. It did not return to open session.

Also Tuesday

• New officer. Brenden Burnham, a Stoughton police officer who lives in Lakeville, was appointed police officer and constable through July 31, 2027. He fills a vacancy left when an officer transferred to Plymouth.
• Election. The board signed the warrant for the Nov. 3 state election. All three precincts vote at Ted Williams Camp, 28 Precinct St.
• Land policy. The board adopted a final policy on selling town-owned land. It includes a provision that tax-title properties not yet foreclosed on may be recommended for foreclosure.
• Donation. The board accepted a $1,000 donation from Bluestone Bank for an Economic Development Committee business social and set up a gift account for the committee.
• Appointments and licenses. Gabriela Santana was appointed to the Community Preservation Committee. David Cavanaugh and William Orphanos were reappointed fish wardens for the Middleborough-Lakeville Herring Fishery Commission. Black Hat Brew Works got a one-day beer and wine license for the Heart of the Harvest Artisan Market, Oct. 18 at 54 Main St. Harper Lane Brewery’s license for the Elliot Farm Harvest Festival gained an Oct. 11 rain date.
• Pond Lodge. Surette said the town’s request for proposals to run Pond Lodge drew one bid, from the current tenant, Cranberry Catering LLC.
• County. Sukeforth said Plymouth County is exploring a countywide water authority modeled on the MWRA. He called the county’s pension assessment for fiscal 2028 and 2029 “very high.”
• Delayed. The board pushed votes on the town administrator’s fiscal 2027 goals to Oct. 6. It approved an evaluation timeline that ends with a Dec. 1 overview.

The meeting opened with a moment of silence for former deputy fire chief David Goodfellow. The board next meets Oct. 6 at 5:45 p.m. at the library’s Great Ponds Gallery. The full Sept. 29 agenda is posted on the town website.

Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. Neither body has a role in Lakeville town government or the Middleborough Housing Authority.