Lanesborough Police Station Committee Holds First Meeting
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Police Station Committee, which will focus on the town's ongoing plans to build a new station, convened for its first meeting on Tuesday.
"I don't think there's anyone in this room that would disagree that the station is in a vast disarray and needs immediate attention," said Police Chief Robert Derksen. "So I think everyone agrees that it needs to be replaced, in some capacity. Hopefully, the mission of this committee is to do it the most fiscally responsible while still meeting the current and long term needs of the police agency."
The committee voted Kristen Tool as chair. She said the group must consider community concerns throughout its process to avoid further delays, as plans for the building have already gone through multiple iterations based on resident feedback.
"I think it's really important for people in town to hear that they're not asking for things that are frivolous," she said. "And just hearing what are their non-negotiables for this new building and what they have been putting up with."
Tool suggested putting an update from the committee on the Board of Selectmen's agendas in addition to community outreach efforts. She said the final cost of the project is not currently understood, as grants and other things could impact the total price to the town.
"If we can get a couple of grants, it can knock a million dollars off of it," she said. "We don't know what the price is going to be yet. And that, I think, is going to be the hardest part of all this. Because there are a lot of factors that are out of our control," she said.
Derksen said he thinks now is the right time to begin the process despite ongoing issues with inflation and the price of materials. He noted other communities have capital projects ongoing that are much more expensive than previous estimates for the new police station.
"Inflation is terrible, but I don't know that prices are going to come down anytime soon," he said. Inflation isn't going to get any better anytime soon. I think the longer we wait, it actually will cost money in the long run.".
Town Administrator Joshua Lang said the state is trying to put together a fund for municipal projects such as these but was unsure of the timeframe.
"They realize there's not a whole lot of things out there. But again, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon," he said.
Committee members expressed the importance of meeting with Brian Humes of Jacunski and Humes Architects soon. Humes' firm has been working on the designs for the new station throughout the process.
Several members also said tours of other local police stations would be helpful for the process. Committee member and former Police Chief Tim Sorrell said Adams is likely the most comparable station locally and noted visiting other stations would benefit the committee significantly.
"The best thing about visiting these departments is, you can see what that new evidence room looks like, you can see what the community road looks like," he said. "You can see what these new things that Brian Humes is telling us we need to do, you can actually see those in person rather than see them on paper and in the diagram."
The committee will be doing a site visit to the current police station on Thursday.
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