Seekonk Select Board Backs Old Town Hall Rehab, Approves Police Hires and Licenses

SEEKONK — May 13, 2026 — Seekonk Select Board approves two police hires, accepts nearly $7,600 in fire grants, and opens door to a $4 million Old Town Hall rehabilitation. The board voted unanimously to extend conditional employment offers to lateral-transfer candidates Adam Pacheco as a full-time officer and Michael Combra as a special/reserve officer, both subject to standard POST certification requirements presented by the police chief. Select Board member Robert Archibald and member Elizabeth Almazian jointly presented a braided federal grant strategy — targeting EDA, NEA, IMLS, and 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding — to rehabilitate the Old Town Hall into a STEM workforce training center, after-school youth hub, and Native American history museum, at an estimated cost of "at least $4 million." Archibald said Southeastern Regional Planning called the concept viable and offered to write the grants outside Seekonk's standard 40-hour annual assistance allotment, with the town contributing roughly 20 percent of project costs. The board also approved food truck permits for La Loncherita and Barrels and Boards at the Seekonk Speedway, a one-day liquor license for Four Echoes Vintage Shoppe's Heroes Dinner and wedding events, voted four to one to appoint Almazian as liaison to the Medeiros Farm Committee, and sent a unanimous letter to the School Committee asking that a 25-year-old hand-painted warrior mural in the high school gymnasium be preserved.