Letters: Vote No on Fire Station Land Purchase
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To the Editor:
Please join me in voting NO to both articles at the Fire District special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, at 7 p.m. at Williamstown Elementary School.
My reasons for voting NO have been consistent ... I'm not voting against a new fire station, I'm voting against buying the property before we know if a joint police and fire station can fit on the property, and we will know that in relatively short order.
The biggest single savings we can get from doing a joint building is only having to buy one piece of land. If we buy this land and then find out that a joint station won't fit on it, I don't believe the FD will be able to sell it for a long time (if ever) and I also believe they will use a 'sunk costs' argument to justify building their own separate station.
I do not believe for one moment that the Lehovec property will be snatched up by another buyer as the Prudential Board is insisting (http://www.advocateweekly.com/ci_24623546/burning-issue). If I were representing the Lehovec estate, that's what I would be telling the Prudential Board, too. That's called "urgency" and its the oldest seller's trick in the book. Furthermore, if there is a business interested in the property, then Williamstown needs the jobs that the new business will create and the property tax revenues it will pay far more than we need a new fire station.
I look forward to seeing each and every one of you at the meeting tomorrow night.
Allen Jezouit
Williamstown
Tags: fire station, land sales, special meeting,
