HOPKINTON — After a brief hearing in superior court in Concord on Monday, the board of selectmen has been given the go-ahead to hold a special town meeting to raise funds to build a new highway garage.

In June, the former highway garage was destroyed when a three-alarm blaze that started in the town’s 10-wheel dump truck parked next to the building set off an explosion that ignited the garage. No one was injured, but the building was totaled.

Since the fire, the town has been in negotiations with the Local Government Center (LGC), which carries the insurance policy on the town’s building. The town and LGC have been at odds over the replacement value of the building and have brought in a third-party appraiser to help try to find some common ground between the $650,000 LGC said a new building would cost and the $1 million the town said the building was insured for.

In the meantime, the town is racing the clock to give the crew of the highway department a place to hang their hats before the snow flies. The crew has set up shop in temporary trailers and the heavy equipment is being housed at a Department of Transportation shed in Warner. The board decided to petition the court for permission to hold a special town meeting to raise the funds necessary for a new building instead of waiting for negotiations between the town and LGC to be completed.

On Monday, according to Jim O’Brien, chairman of the board of selectmen, the court heard the town’s argument for holding the emergency meeting and the judge immediately ruled that the meeting could go forward.

“It was pretty quick and painless,” said O’Brien.

The meeting has been set for Nov. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the high school, and though the board hasn’t finalized the warrant, O’Brien said they’ll likely be asking for $1.2 million to build a new garage.

The board is waiting on a guaranteed maximum price for the new building from Jewett Construction before setting the warrant in ink. It’s also possible that the town and LGC will reach a settlement before the deadline for printing the warrant. A settlement could mean that the meeting is canceled, O’Brien said, but it’s more likely that it will continue as planned but the amount asked for on the warrant will be reduced. It appears that the cost of the new building is going to surpass the value of the settlement from LGC, O’Brien said, but all settlement money will be used to offset the cost of the building.

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Nancy Bean Foster may be reached at nfoster@newstote.com.