CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Selectmen last week voted to move the next town meeting to Hoosac Valley High School.

 

Tuesday night, the board members raised the issue of moving their own meetings back to Town Hall. They decided against it for now but not before several related topics came into play.

 

"It wouldn't be a quick process. There would have to be steps taken care of before moving the meetings there," said Selectwoman Michelle Francesconi, who originally proposed the idea of returning to Town Hall. "There is a lot of junk in Town Hall. Town Hall is an absolute disaster right now. In walking through, it's messy, it's dirty, empty boxes, full boxes. It's very disorganized."

 

Francesconi mentioned some Town Hall employees feel a disconnect since the Selectmen's meetings moved to the Community Center in 2019. That was done because the number of board members had increased from three to five, which would make the weekly meetings in the tiny Selectmen's room even tighter. 

 

"Almost everybody at Town hall was furious that the Selectmen left with no notice. So this is kind of reacting to people there being upset that we moved without them being told. I don't think there was a single happy comment that I heard that the select board meeting came here," she said.

 

 The deteriorating state of Town Hall, along with other municipal buildings, has been a topic for the board at nearly every meeting since last summer. Falling pieces of ceiling, crumbling masonry, leaking roofs, and general disrepair have been mentioned frequently by every member of the board. 

 

Selectman Mark Biagini agreed with Francesconi on some level but sees a couple potential problems. Parking being the most difficult.

 

"Especially with everybody working there, you have people going there to pay their bills and they would have to park all the way down Depot Street. It's a good idea but parking is the main thing," he said.

 

Chairman Robert Ciskowski agreed with Biagini about the parking and let his opinion be known about the move in general.

 

"I'm not sure it's really wise to be doing anything or freshening up Town Hall if we have the school building that, maybe in a couple years, we might be able to move [there]. I would equate it to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic," he said. "The building was not built this century, it wasn't built in the last century, it was built at the end of the one before that. With the parking, or lack thereof, in the winter ... we would not allow something like that, if it was a business, to operate without off-street parking."

 

Although the issue was the viability of moving their meetings back to Town Hall, the board discussed several town buildings being part of a ripple effect of that move and ultimately ended up having the familiar discussion about the re-use of the Cheshire School property.

 

They are currently accepting proposals for a feasibility study for the former elementary school. Town Administrator Edmund St. John IV gave the board an update.

 

"The next step is to figure out what we're going to do with the school building. Everything revolves around what's going to happen with the school. Then we can start to plan everything else around it," St. John said. "I just received [the first] quote for the feasibility study. We are in the midst of getting some numbers in to see what's out there."

 

Selectman Jason Levesque has been investigating funding sources on a big-picture level to address some of the town's infrastructure needs.

 

"We've had a few meetings, very, very preliminary, about a new joint emergency services facility. Amalio Jusino (of Emergency Response Consulting) has been a part of that. He's been pretty huge on getting grants for the Fire Department. At one point he mentioned that if there is a public meeting space [included], that opens you up to grant access. Obviously nothing is set in stone and we're just gathering ideas to see if it's even worthwhile pursuing," he said.

 

Selectman Ron DeAngelis has never been bullish on the town acting as landlord for the former school building but was realistic about the potential options Tuesday.

 

"It's going to be a burden to the town forever. It might be the only option but we have to look to make sure there's nothing else out there. Because there is money out there for elderly housing. I'm not against the town going in there, I  just want to make sure all our options are open."

 

Francesconi ended up withdrawing her motion to move the meetings but still wants the town to give Town Hall a cosmetic makeover.

 

"There is nothing stopping us [from cleaning it]. Town Hall is not presentable. It's an embarrassment. When there are chunks of ceiling falling off at Town Hall ... there are definitely issues that need to be addressed, whether we move the select board meeting back there or not," she said. "There's an American flag that I can see in the dirt underneath piles of boxes near the front door."