Selectmen Approve Special Town Meeting For Purchase of Archdiocese Property

At their Monday meeting, Wilmington Selectmen voted 5-0 in favor of calling a Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting for the purpose of appropriating funds for the purchase of property at 120 Main Street.

The 7.86 acre parcel is owned by the Archdiocese of Boston and is currently  part of St. Dorothy's Parish.

The purchase price for the property is $1,725,000, according to Town Manager Jeff Hull.

Special Town Meeting will be held on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Wilmington Middle School auditorium.

At their Aug. 12 meeting, Selectmen voted 4-0 in favor of a determination of uniqueness for the property at 120 Main St, which demonstrates the property has unique characteristics that make it impractical to go through formal bid process.

Hull said that while the town does not presently have a use for the property at 120 Main St. in mind, there are few similar properties for sale along Main Street, making this a valuable opportunity.

"The town does have certain needs that could come about in next few years and given the fact there are so few properties to purchase like this, I think it's to the town's advantage to seize the moment here and purchase this property," Hull said. 

Hull noted that since the property at 120 Main St. is currently owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, there would be no loss in tax revenue for the town resulting from the purpose.

"One advantage of purchasing the property is where it's currently church property, it's not on tax roll so we won't see diminishment in revenue coming into the town from the tax rolls," Hull said.

Selectman Michael Champoux asked Hull to explain why this issue was being brought before a Special Town Meeting, instead of waiting for Annual Town Meeting in May. 

Hull said that in speaking with representation for the Archdiocese of Boston, the church wanted to move forward with the sale of the property before May of next year.

"The church felt the need to complete this transaction in a more expeditious manner and did not feel it could wait for authorization from Annual Town Meeting," Hull said. "Certainly there are other individuals who I presume would be interested in this property. Fortunately they came to us and offered us a first shot, if you will, at this property."

Near the end of the meeting, Hull announced that Wilmington Fire Chief Edward Bradbury would be retiring on June 1, 2014.

Hull said that Bradbury, who has worked for the town of Wilmington for 40 years, has made numerous valuable contributions to the town during his tenure with the Fire Department. 

"He has been a tremendous resource in my estimation," Hull said. "He has been responsible for a number of upgrades to the department, and I think he'll be sorely missed."

Selectman Michael Newhouse said he wished Bradbury the best on behalf of the Board.

"Please extend our congratulations to the Chief and let him know anything we can do between now and his retirement, we'll do," Newhouse said. 

Back in May, Wilmington's Firefighters Local 1370  took a vote of "no confidence" in Bradbury, using words like "hostile," "vendetta," harassment" and "unsafe" to describe the conditions existing due to what the union claims is the unprofessional conduct of Bradbury.

A letter with the results of that vote and the explanation for it was hand delivered to Hull's office the next day.

At a June Selectmen meeting, Hull responded to this letter, saying that he believed "it is in the best interest of the town to de-escalate the tension at the Fire Department and to establish a constructive dialogue to address issues that may exist."

Selectmen also heard from representatives of BGP Tavern, LLC, requesting an alcohol license for a soon-to-be restaurant at 300 Lowell St.

BGP Tavern, LLC owns and operates Burtons Grill, but the Lowell Street location would feature "Red Heat Tavern," a new restaurant. 

Burtons CEO Kevin Harron said the restaurant was on track for a March 2014 opening, and would be a new and exciting venture.

"I think what we will intend to do is not bring you what all the other folks have done prior to this," Harron said. Creating Burtons was an exciting adventure particularly because it worked. I'd like to see that happen again.

Selectmen were wearing orange at their Monday meeting in honor of leukemia awareness, and will be doing the same at their other September meeting.