Hampden Select Board reorganizes leadership, advances five-bay fire station design

Select Board · Meeting of May 26, 2026

Hampden Select Board installs new chair and pushes fire station project off a months-long stalemate. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint member Donald Flynn as chair of both the Select Board and the Board of Health through January 1, 2027, bypassing member Eric Ainsworth who cited work commitments. The board directed the Fire Department Building Committee to produce a sketch plan for a proposed five-bay, 80-by-100-foot prefabricated metal apparatus building to be built south of the existing station — a revised design the committee said roughly fits within the town-meeting-approved budget, even as an updated price on the original design came back approximately $2 million over estimate.

The project's owner's project manager warned the board that construction cost inflation is running approximately $30,000 per month. The board also appointed 10 residents and town officials to a new Open Space Committee, awarded a three-year waste hauling contract to McNamara at a $10-per-haul annual escalator, and approved the VFW's turkey shoot series running August 30 through November 22, 2026, with three additional dates through April 2027.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of May 26, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.