Hampden Selectboard Clears Five-Bay Fire Station for Bidding Process

HAMPDEN -- June 8, 2026, Hampden Selectboard authorizes fire station bid documents, approves $1.45 million water borrowing in busy June 8 session. The board voted unanimously to direct the building committee and its architects to finalize bid documents for a five-bay metal-frame fire station addition to be placed on the south side of the existing station, a plan that will eliminate roughly eight parking spaces adjacent to the old town hall parcel. The committee's architect acknowledged the project has consumed approximately $500,000 in soft costs over roughly 10 years of development and warned that further delays would erode the $8.3 million town meeting appropriation. The board also approved a $1.45 million Statehouse note through Unibank at 3.25 percent, the sole bidder, to fund completion of the water district expansion, with engineers from Tighe and Bond confirming roughly half of the district's homes are now fully connected. In police staffing, the board extended a conditional offer to Amanda Rivera, a co-response clinician who has been embedded with the department for five months, contingent on completion of the September 21 police academy; the board also authorized the highway department to post a new internal supervisory position and appointed Clark Kadis as a transfer station attendant substitute.