The town is progressing with work on its new Fire Department sub-station located at the intersection of Oxford Road and Heritage Drive. The new building is located in front of Charlton’s Middle School on town-owned property. This second manned substation is proposed to be a 13,188 square foot building with four drive-through bays that will house five pieces of fire equipment: an ambulance, engine, tower, forestry, and boat as well as outdoor covered storage for support trailers. It is expected to have a staff of three full-time personnel per shift. “Groundbreaking was held in June,” said Town Administrator Andrew Golas, “and the foundation is currently being built.”

“Additionally, we are wrapping up our Charlton # 2 Schoolhouse Structural and Exterior Repair Project. The structural shoring up has been completed to ensure no roof collapse and abatement work has been done on the slate roof along with lightning protection. It’s now watertight and we hope it lasts another 100 years. Phase II of this project includes window replacements and entryway replacement as well as exterior painting. We’ve been working with Crocker Architectural of North Oxford as well as an historical engineer and the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC). The MHC had granted us $50,000 for these repairs but then increased their grant to $100,000 which will cover expenses through July 2026. Five other projects had dropped off the MHC list and Charlton has benefitted from these events. The MHC worked closely with us and they were pleased with Phase I,” Golas said.

“Our partnership with Amazon is progressing. They have brought about 1,000 jobs to our area and the growing pains of public safety have been addressed with most traffic issues occurring on the Mass. Pike and not in the Amazon vicinity. Amazon has done major infrastructure work on Route 20 along with traffic interchange improvements and traffic signals. For the next 10 years, Amazon will be donating $150,000 annually for our schools’ STEM programs (science, technology, engineering, and math). These funds go directly to our Dudley-Charlton School District. They will also provide $250,000 for construction of a band shell that will most likely be built at 4 Dresser Hill Road behind the Arts and Activity Center. Amazon also provided our town with $350,000 for recreational improvements which was used for ADA improvements at the Maynard Field. These ADA improvements were desperately needed. We struck a great partnership with Amazon and their Tax Increment Financing plan was almost a match to their funding to our town.”

Repairs to the older section of the Charlton Library roof have been completed for the sum of $300,000. “It’s hoped that the new install will last another 20 years,” said Golas, “and I’d like to thank Charlton residents for their support of this project.”

Administrator Golas is currently on schedule drafting the town’s Capital Improvement Plan for October’s Special Town Meeting.