North Adams Councilors to Tour Public Services Buildings
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City councilors will be touring the city's public service structures as the administration lays out the reasoning to spend some $1.5 million to consolidate everything at the former anodizing plant at Hodges Cross Road.
The City Council on Tuesday was presented with a purchase-and-sales agreement of $995,000 with 59 Hodges Cross Road LLC for the structure and its 30-some acres. Another half-million would go toward further updating and transforming the 85,000 square foot building to hold the several different departments and activities.
The council voted to postpone discussion on the agreement until after touring the City Yard and other public service buildings on Monday night; it will convene at City Hall following the tour. A tour of the vacant anodizing building is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 7.
Mayor Richard Alcombright said he had begun conversations with Berkshire Anodizing owner Arthur Grodd two years ago about deeding the city some 3.7 acres to the north of the structure as a possible expansion of Southview Cemetery.
And when the city posted a request for proposals for an expansive structure to consolidate its public services department, Berkshire Anodizing was the only applicant. Alcombright said the building has been inspected and found to be in good condition and that the company had done a detailed environmental review that is currently being checked by the city's engineers Tighe & Bond.
The results of that review should be available by the council's Sept. 13 meeting and the purchase agreement is contingent on the outcome — and on the council's approval of a borrowing authorization later in September. The city is looking at both traditional borrowing for the structure as well as options offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for municipal infrastructure.
The mayor said he hoped to close on the property by mid-October and begin the transition before the winter weather sets in.
"I don't think at this point I'm going to say if I support it or not," said Councilor Keith Bona. "I think there's a lot to be learned and I don't think tonight is the appropriate place to be asking a lot of questions."
The other councilors were willing to wait but indicated they would be interrogating the mayor, Public Services Commissioner Timothy Lescarbeau and Administrative Officer Michael Canales. Councilor Lisa Blackmer asked that the assessor also attend because she had plenty of questions of
Councilor Eric Buddington asked that the scheduled meetings be conducted in such a way to have greater input from the public.
The mayor suggested meeting as a council of the whole and suspending rules; Blackmer thought it could be a joint meeting of the council and Public Services Committee which would ease the rules and also ensure a quorum since the committee was made up of three councilors.
She also objected to what she said was another accelerated process being handed to the council after being pushed on the Center Street parking issue.
Councilor Nancy Bullett wondered if they could just tour the plant rather than the public services facilities since it was well known they were in poor condition.
From my perspective, and from our guys, we'd like you to see the bad and the ugly again because it's important you see it," the mayor said. "It's not just about the DPW. The cemetery building is in horrible condition, our salt shed is weakening and the buildings and other facilities we are using now ... just within the next five years, everything is going to need to be replaced.
"So I think we really want the council to look at the bad and the ugly and follow it with some good."
Councilor Robert M. Moulton Jr. wanted to know if a different property could be used.
"I have a million questions," he said "One of my biggest concerns is jobs ... I think that is one parcel in the city that's very inducive for [it]."
Moulton thought the plant could offer an opportunity for light industry and also noted that it generates about $60,000 in taxes that would disappear. "I think there is a lot to digest in the next couple of weeks."
But Alcombright found unexpected support from one of his more vocal critics.
"I'd like to commend Timmy Lescarbeau for being way ahead of the curve, because if they don't get this building, where do we go from here? " asked resident Robert Cardimino, noting it was only the fourth time he'd agreed with the mayor. "Down the road, it's going to be a lot more expensive."
If an industrial business did want to come, the old Sprague/Vishay building in the industrial park has been empty for years, he said. "Just because I'm in favor of this doesn't mean you have to vote against it."
Tags: public buildings, public services, tour,
