Cheshire to Explore Fixing Pricey Road Grader
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The town will look into repairing its aging grader instead of renting one for the summer months.
Selectwoman Carol Francesconi asked Highway Superintendent Blair Crane Tuesday if it would be possible to repair the town grader instead of spending $4,000 a month to rent one.
"Can't we fix our grader, so we have a grader? If it costs us under $10,000 to fix it why can't we fix it?" she asked. "At least when the roads need to be graded we can do it ... we kind of just walk around this grader issue and I kind of think it is silly not to fix it if it is usable."
Crane asked the selectmen in March if they would consider purchasing a new grader, however, the board took pause because a new grader would likely cost over $325,000.
The current grader is aging beyond its useful life and currently is out of commission with a broken radiator. Crane said he could get this fixed for under $10,000 but anticipated something else would break soon after.
"The issue that I have is that every time up to date I have tried to fix it, something else has gone wrong with it whether it be broken teeth, it not running well and right now it has two flat tires," Crane said. "Once we take that step and start pouring money into it we are pretty committed."
Selectman Edmund St. John IV asked if the town could purchase an attachment for the town loader and use the loader to grade the roads.
Selectman Robert Ciskowski said although this would be a cheaper option, it would not do the job a true grader would do.
"The loader can rough it out and make it better, but a loader will never grade like a grader," he said. "It has a lot more variables ... and I think it would be tight on some of the camp roads."
St. John added that he still thought there may be an opportunity to share a grader with another community.
"I still like to think there is some kind of collaboration there," he said. "There has to be something."
Town Administrator Mark Webber said agreements to share equipment typically are hard to work out especially if something breaks or the machine is needed immediately.
Crane said he would get an estimate for the repair.
In other business, Webber said he was recently in contact with Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and scheduled a meeting to discuss the town's failed Complete Streets application.
Through BRPC, the town applied for state funds to make improvements to Railroad and Depot streets. A few weeks ago, it was discovered that what was thought to be a solid application didn't cut it.
Webber said part of the problem was that more communities applied this round and even those that received funding were given far less money.
"It suddenly caught on statewide and there were more than 100 applications this round that we were in," Webber said. "The state has reallocated the amount to those who did get awards."
Webber said Williamstown and Adams also applied. Both towns received funding -- but less than the $400,000 they applied for.
The town also lost points in its application under the "Environmental Justice" section.
"It seems that we are on the low side of the state's new initiative that wasn't discussed or raised during this process," he said. "We don't have enough non-English primary speakers, we don't have enough minorities or public housing. You get ranked higher if you have all of those."
Before closing, the Selectmen provided Jacob Zieminski of Berkshire Boys Inc. with a draft host community agreement for its proposed marijuana recreational cultivation development at 128 Fales Road.
"You can read this over and see where we stand from there," Francesconi said.
Zieminski will attend a future meeting to go over the agreement.
Tags: complete streets, DPW equipment, marijuana,
