WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The fire district next week will get its first look at initial cost estimates for a new station on Main Street.

 

The district's architect is scheduled to present the preliminary numbers to the district's Building Committee at its Aug. 31 meeting.

 

"The public needs to understand this is the first step," Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi said at Wednesday's monthly Prudential Committee meeting. "We have a long way to go, but we have to start getting some tangible numbers together so we can figure out which way we're going to go."

 

Many of those decisions will be hashed out by the Building Committee, which was appointed by the Prudential Committee and which includes a broader cross section of the community.

 

On Wednesday, the five-person Prudential Committee made two decisions related to the building project. It agreed to sign a contract with consultant Solar Design Associates and to put out a request for proposals for an architect to provide independent cost estimates at future stages of the project.

 

The committee OK'd an expenditure of $7,500 to Harvard's Solar Design Associates to help Pittsfield's EDM, the architect for the new station, create a plan to utilize solar energy on the new station site.

 

"It will help us understand what the district is looking at for an outlay and how quickly that can be recovered," said Ken Romeo of Colliers Engineering and Design, the district's owner's project manager for the project. "The recommendation going forward is, eventually this consultant will become the district's consultant so the district can get the full benefits coming back.

 

"[The $7,500] will get us rolling and carry us through phase one."

 

Moresi explained that Solar Design Associate's work is not duplicative of the work already being done by a green engineer on the project.

 

"This is very specialized design work," Moresi said. "It's something that is going to be needed as we sell [the building project] to the community. These days, everyone is obviously in tune with being environmentally responsible.

 

"It's something that is going to be a little more fuel in our arsenal as we go and look to move this project forward."

 

The district had three responses to an RFP seeking a solar firm. Of that group, Solar Design Associates stood out for its work on commercial projects, Romeo said.

 

The committee unanimously agreed to engage the solar specialist and also voted without dissent to issue an RFP to find a cost estimator.

 

That decision was discussed at length by the committee back in May. On Wednesday, it decided to take the step of finding an estimator who can assist the district at different phases of the project by providing a different perspective to EDM's internal estimates.

 

"The owner, through us, will have an [independent] estimate, and EDM will have one," Romeo said. "We will then get together and have a reconciliation meeting. We'll at least get a feeling of whether the scope is right."

 

In other building project-related news, the Prudential Committee learned that geotechnical studies on the Main Street site are scheduled for the third week in September, and district Treasurer Corydon Thurston reported that the district has spent nearly $100,000 against a $400,000 Rural and Small Town Development Fund grant from the commonwealth.

 

Thurston also reported that the district is lining up meetings with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the town to talk about the curb cuts and signals that will be required for the new station on Main Street, also known as Route 2, near the Green River.