Dalton Board Continues Push for Dalton Division Road Project
DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board voted Monday to support the Dalton Division Road repair project as it competes against other projects for funding during regional Metropolitan Planning Organization's reprioritization process. Currently, the project is in second place but is tied with five other projects.
Chairman Joseph Diver will be attending the Transportation Advisory Committee's meeting on March 12 and the MPO meeting on March 22 to argue the importance of the project. He also reached out to Pittsfield's City Council for a letter of support for the project.
John Boyle, the town's MPO representative, said the planning organization was concerned that if the money was given for Dalton Division Road, it would not get spent. But he said a lot of definitive progress has been made in the last week and that confidence between this project and MPO is being gained back.
"Here we are a week later and it must be divine intervention, because other things are in motion. Joe is going to meet with the City Council, Town Manager [Thomas Hutcheson] talking to the roadwatch about reviewing and getting a RFP out there," Boyle said. "This is definitive progress that will indicate to the MPO that Dalton is truly interested in pursuing this problem and the issues they have had in the past are in the past. There are new people in town and we're prepared to move ahead."
Boyle cautioned the committee that there is a concern that Dalton is not using the funding has been granted so it should be utilized on other projects.
The 1.6-mile Dalton Division Road project is up against the $50 million Washington Mountain Road combined road job for Egremont and Mount Washington. This project already has an engineering firm.
The projects will be brought before 10 members of the MPO and need six out of 10 votes to pass.
The board also reviewed some department budget requests for fiscal 2023. Information Technology Services is requesting to nearly double its budget for 2023 to $68,000 from $38,000. This increase is to account for computer maintenance, software purchases, hardware purchases, and server backups.
"The increase on that is due to a lot of new technology that's been put into place at the Town Hall, and Senior Center with new security systems, new phone lines, all new phones, which all run through the internet system," said Patrick Pettit, building grounds superintendent.
With all the upgrades, the Information Technology Services is running short on money this year just handling Town Hall and trying to maintain the upgrades. And with the nationwide computer chip shortage, costs have been greatly increased. One firewall had a cost increase of $800.
Select Board member Dan Esko raised concerns about the hefty increase and argued that taxes can't continually be raised to offset the cost increases for departments.
"I mean, the bottom line is, everything's always gonna cost more money and departments are always gonna ask for more, for whatever reason, there's always good reasons for it. But the question is, can we afford it?" Esko said.
Finance Committee Chair William Drosehn offered his support for the increase during the meeting, saying this budget has been neglected for a long time and the town has been in need for these updates.
Drosehn has been watching this budget since 1995, calling it his "pet issue," and has been advocating for an increase for many years. He argued that the budget was originally around $8,000 and with that budget the town was barely functioning with 10 year old computers. With the upgrades there is a much better interaction with the public.
"We have always vastly underfunded this particular budget. I quite personally don't believe it's going to go much higher than this. We've actually been building up to it over the past few years," Drosehn said. "We finally got it where it really belongs, quite frankly, considering there's 70-plus computers within this organization. And I believe there's five or more servers operating within this organization. That's a pretty good budget for an organization of this size."
The Select Board approved the Green Committee's answers to the questionnaire the town received from Berkshire Gas surrounding what efforts are being made to combat climate change and recognize the importance and time-sensitiveness of the issue.
"The town leadership recognizes climate change is driving significant long lasting changes for our environment. To that human activity is a driver of the changes and three that changes to human activity and help mitigate the currently projected changes," said Town Planner Grant McGregor. "Dalton acknowledges that the use of fossil fuels is one of the primary drivers of climate change, and will endeavor to comply with or exceed the 2050 state targets regarding the reduction of fossil fuel use in municipal and residential facilities."
The town is investing in building improvements that will aid Massachusetts in reaching its 2050 net zero greenhouse-gas emission goal.
"Dalton is investing in plans that include increasing building insulation and pipe insulation, replacing existing steam heating systems with systems capable of both steam and circulating hot water heating and using many splits wherever possible to significantly reduce some natural gas consumption," McGregor said.
The town is also applying for grants to support the climate change efforts and hopes to have the first major revision in late 2022 or mid-2023. Dalton is also monitoring emerging cost effecting technologies that could be used in the foreseeable future.
"Dalton is monitoring emerging technologies such as wasting fuel processes, and fuel hydrogen generation fees can be done affordably, in an environmentally safe manner without creating unacceptable greenhouse gas emissions," McGregor said.
In other news:
• Former assessor Laura L. Maffuccio has agreed to work for the town for a short time in order for it to be able to have three assessors. Hutcheson said having only two assessors is difficult because when the two are unavailable to sign documents it can be detrimental for the town.
• The Town Hall budget has been increased 4.14 percent for safety equipment to comply with OSHA regulations.
• A resident education session will be happening on Monday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Wahconah Regional High School auditorium prior to the annual town meeting.
• The following committees are looking for volunteers: ADA Committee, Beautification Commission, Cultural Council, Dalton Cable Advisory Committee, Dalton Green Committee, Finance Committee, Stormwater Management Commission, Waste Management and Recycle Committee. For those interested they can reach out to Alyssa Maschino in the town manager's office at 413-684-6111, Ext. 202, or amaschino@dalton-ma.gov. More information can be found here.
