Updated Friday morning to correct a reference to the vote threshold at the district meeting needed to approve the station.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Five years after the fire district's voters approved purchasing a Main Street parcel for a new station, the Prudential Committee is ready to ask those voters to take the next step.
On Wednesday, the committee voted 5-0 to set a special district meeting for Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. when voters will be asked to approve borrowing to pay for construction of a new station.
The Prudential Committee accepted the recommendation of its Building Committee that now is the time to finalize the project so that shovels can go in the ground as early as next summer.
"I think it's worth repeating every time that it's a complicated project, and there are a lot of difficult decisions to make," the Building Committee's Jim Kolesar told the elected Prudential Committee members. "The later the vote is, the more information you have, the more refined your design and financial projections can be.
"The longer you wait, the more expensive the project becomes."
Kolesar and Building Committee Chair Elaine Neely told the Prudential Committee that the building panel believes two months is enough time for a vigorous voter information effort in advance of the Dec. 7 meeting, where the question will be decided by a floor vote, where it would require a two-thirds vote for passage.
It remains uncertain how much borrowing authority the Prudential Committee will seek from voters.
The initial estimate for building a 27,500 square foot station at the former Lehovec property on Main Street (Route 2) came in at just less than $18 million.
But the Building Committee hopes to refine that cost in the next few weeks. A big unknown for the architects who did the initial cost projection was the amount of site work that would be needed, and the missing piece of information was a geotechnical survey of the 3.7-acre site.
On Wednesday, Ken Romeo of owners' project manager Colliers Engineering and Design told the Prudential Committee that the geotech field work was done, and the consultant should have a report in "two and a half to three weeks" that will help the architects refine their cost estimate.
Another unknown is how much money aside from taxation the district can expect.
The Prudential Committee is aggressively seeking state and federal grant money to support construction, going so far as to hire a grant writer who, last year, helped the district successfully acquire a $400,000 state grant to pay for design work for the station.
And it is widely hoped that Williams College will contribute to the project. The college long has had a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with the district to provide annual support for the Fire Department, and, more recently, provided financial support when the town built a new police station on Simonds Road and gave a $5 million capital gift to Mount Greylock Regional School at the outset of the middle-high school addition/renovation project.
Kolesar, an emeritus vice president for public affairs at the college, told the Prudential Committee that Williams' board of trustees are scheduled to meet in October. The next scheduled meeting after that is in January, according to the school's website.
As for the voters, who will be asked to bear the bulk of the cost, district officials believe they have a compelling case that the aging, cramped and deficient station on Water Street needs to be replaced.
Neely said members of the Building Committee will be going to local civic groups to make the case for a new building, and the district is scheduling open houses at the current facility on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 to show residents once again how inadequate it is for the district's needs.
"I think if you emphasize the health risks involved here, people will understand," Neely said. "As a health professional, I'm horrified by what we're subjecting volunteers to."
Officials say a new station would better and more safely serve the district's current staff of call-volunteer firefighters. The chief is the only full-time employee; the rest are compensated by stipend, mostly for hours at an incident.
A new station also, it is hoped, will attract new volunteers and, potentially, delay the time when the district might seriously need to look at additional full-time staffing in the face of national declines in volunteerism.
"If we're going to have this nice new modern facility, hopefully, it will help us attract volunteers, too," Prudential Committee Chair Dave Moresi said.
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Williamstown Fire Committee Talks Station Project Cuts, Truck Replacement
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee on Wednesday signed off on more than $1 million in cost cutting measures for the planned Main Street fire station.
Some of the "value engineering" changes are cosmetic, while at least one pushes off a planned expense into the future.
The committee, which oversees the Fire District, also made plans to hold meetings over the next two Wednesdays to finalize its fiscal year 2025 budget request and other warrant articles for the May 28 annual district meeting. One of those warrant articles could include a request for a new mini rescue truck.
The value engineering changes to the building project originated with the district's Building Committee, which asked the Prudential Committee to review and sign off.
In all, the cuts approved on Wednesday are estimated to trim $1.135 million off the project's price tag.
The biggest ticket items included $250,000 to simplify the exterior masonry, $200,000 to eliminate a side yard shed, $150,000 to switch from a metal roof to asphalt shingles and $75,000 to "white box" certain areas on the second floor of the planned building.
The white boxing means the interior spaces will be built but not finished. So instead of dividing a large space into six bunk rooms and installing two restrooms on the second floor, that space will be left empty and unframed for now.
The Charter Review Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to endorse an amended version of the compliance provision it drafted to be added to the Town Charter. click for more
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
click for more
The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, say the gift reflects their desire to not only support Williams but also President Maud S. Mandel's strategic vision and plan for the college.
click for more
Neighbors of a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week asked the Planning Board to take a critical look at the project, which the residents say is out of scale to the neighborhood. click for more