Seekonk Select Board Rejects Medeiros Farm Design Contract in 3-2 Vote

SEEKONK -- June 24, 2026, Seekonk Select Board voted 3-2 to reject the designer services contract for the Medeiros Farm project and ordered an independent traffic study before any design work proceeds. The twin votes, taken at a joint session with the Medeiros Farm Committee, came after more than 90 minutes of debate that surfaced a disputed scoring process, questions about project costs and maintenance, and confusion over whether the $150,000 master plan, the basis for the proposed $549,000 designer fee to CHA, still accurately reflected the project scope. Board member Gary Sagar, who made the motion to commission the traffic study and supported rejecting the contract, said the town needed to "dot the I's and cross the T's" before committing ratepayer dollars. Town Administrator Michael Kadeem warned that because more than six months had elapsed since the scoring process, rejecting the contract would require restarting the full designer selection process, potentially pushing active design into fiscal year 2028-29. Town meeting had twice authorized the $825,000 project appropriation by more than two-thirds margins.