Wilmington Select Board Schedules May 2 Vote on $10.75 Million Shrapa Farm Purchase

WILMINGTON — April 13, 2026 — Wilmington Select Board schedules May 2 special town meeting to approve $10.75 million Shrapa Farm purchase. Town Manager Eric Slagel told the board Monday that a negotiated friendly-taking price of $10.75 million — inclusive of previously appropriated funds and offset by a fire-related settlement — has secured the Shrapa family's agreement to forgo litigation over the 333 Andover Street parcel, ending years of eminent domain proceedings and rejected public-private development proposals. Three tax exemption expansion articles will accompany the land purchase on the warrant, including a provision that would double exemptions for qualifying seniors, veterans, surviving spouses, and blind individuals, adding an estimated $125,000 to $145,000 to the $322,601 in exemptions the town distributed in fiscal year 2025. The board also reviewed but rejected as insufficient a draft grant agreement with American Outside Advertising for a two-sided digital I-93 billboard offering $50,000 annually in years one through 20, with members citing vague advertising-space language and an automatic renewal clause lacking a rate increase, and directed staff to renegotiate.