LAKEVILLE — The Select Board is split on the pace of the Fire Station project.

While Vice Chair and the board’s Building Committee representative Lorraine Carboni supports further discussion about the station’s location, Select Board Member Evagelia Fabian wants the project to follow the recommendations of the feasibility study for the station.

Chair Brian Day’s opinion was toward the middle, but he ultimately sided with Carboni, saying that such an expensive project should be handled with a degree of caution.

“This is the biggest capital project out there,” Day said. “So, the more information we get on it, the better.”

The town is building a new station because the current Lakeville Fire Station, which is attached to Town Hall, is too small to accommodate the department, due in part to small vehicle bays and a lack of separate sleeping quarters for women, project supporters have said.

Carboni mentioned the fact that a final location has not been selected for the station. Three locations were proposed in a feasibility study released in September 2022 by consulting firm Socotec.

One of the proposed locations is near the Council on Aging at 1 Dear Crossing, while the other two are on the grounds of Ted Williams Camp, near the Police Station on 323 Bedford St. 

“I thought it would be prudent for this board to establish a procedure as to how we identify’’ the location, Carboni said at the Select Board meeting.

The list of the Building Committee’s responsibilities does not include finalizing the location for the station.

“By looking at the location again and not going by what we paid a feasibility study to do for us and what they came up with, I think we’re delaying the project,” Fabian said. “I’m concerned about that because I don’t want to come against other projects that need to be funded.”

Fabian added that if a location and design are not ready to be voted on at Fall Town Meeting, the board would have to “try our luck” and ask voters to approve both the fire station at the same time as potentially expensive construction upgrades to Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School.

Voters have already a feasibility study for potential renovation or new construction at Old Colony. The project timeline and cost to Lakeville voters has not yet been determined. 

The Fire Station Building Committee asked for bids from companies who want to manage the project. The Committee is targeting Wednesday, June 21 as the date to interview the bidders.

Day asked if the Building Committee would vote to decide the winning bid during its June 21 meeting. Carboni said the Building Committee would decide whether to vote on the night of the interviews.

Carboni said that if all interviews are completed on that date, the Building Committee will “hopefully” have their decision made by the Monday, June 26 Select Board meeting.

“Not ‘hopefully,’ you should have an answer by the 26th,” Fabian said.

Day responded that the conversation was getting beyond the scope of the agenda item — an update from the Fire Station Building Committee — and that “the Committee will operate at the Committee’s pace.”

“I don’t want to rush any decisions that need to be made,” Carboni said. “This committee is moving forward.”

“We are into a minimum of three months of having a Fire Station Building Committee,” Fabian said. “And we’ve barely got one decision made.”