Dollar General's Engineers to Meet With Cheshire Officials
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Dollar General apparently still hopes to build a store in Cheshire, and is scouting out a new location.
Town Administrator Mark Webber told the Selectmen on Tuesday that Bohler Engineering, the firm representing Dollar General, wants to meet in the near future with the board, the building inspector, the Conservation Commission, and the Board of Health about another parcel of land.
The discount chain had proposed two years ago building a store on the 12 South St. lot that contains a 19th-century Second Empire mansion but ran into heavy opposition from residents as well as roadblocks by the building inspector.
The Selectmen said they had no idea what the status of the project is but anticipate Dollar General may want to move it somewhere else.
"We have heard numerous rumors about where they are going and what they are doing, but we don't know," Selectwoman Carol Francesconi said.
Selectman Robert Ciskowski said he suspected an interesting meeting because the town recently updated its zoning to protect itself from the development of such store.
Webber also reported that the Water Department must finish paperwork and supply information to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to officially close out the water-meter replacement project within 30 days or the town will lose its reimbursement.
The USDA Rural Development was the funding agency for the project. The town applied for a grant loan package that would finance the project in the short term and upon completion would receive a reimbursement.
Webber said the project has been open for five years.
"To the Water Department's defense, this paperwork is not easy ... but it has to be done and it should be done because there is grant money on the table as well," Webber said. "One hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars worth."
Webber said he will work with the water superintendent to complete the paperwork. He added that he has brought up the issue before but the Water Commission has failed to act on it.
"It's not fatal, but it has to be done in the next 30 days," he said.
In other business, the Selectmen received a note from the Cheshire Elementary principal in regard to security cameras the board asked the school to purchase to monitor the new playground equipment to be installed in the summer.
Francesconi said the letter stated that because of a heating malfunction over winter break, some pipes were damaged and had to be dug up. While digging up these pipes, other pipes were damaged and it will cost $4,000 to $5,000 to make the needed repairs.
The school would rather use the money to repair the pipes so the purchase of the camera would have to go on the back burner.
Francesconi said they needed the expensive camera to have have clear images, however she felt a cheaper option would suffice.
"We can identify perps on our camera and it was less than $100 bucks," she said. "You can buy a Cadillac or a Chevy, but they want the Cadillac of everything."
Francesconi reported that a circulator pump in the firehouse furnace has broken and two bays do not have heat. Firefighters have left the kitchen and meeting room doors open in order to circulate heat and keep the water in the trucks from freezing.
She said firefighters will check the tanks periodically through the night and a new pump will be installed when it arrives.
Tags: dollar store, USDA, water line,
