Lanesborough Police Station Committee Planning Informational Meeting
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Police Station Committee hopes to have an informational meeting sometime before the January special town meeting to update the community on specific plans and information for the project.
The committee discussed a letter sent to the town by a resident asking about possibly having such a meeting. The committee has previously discussed having a large community meeting but has been waiting until it has the facts the community wants to know.
"We're in an information-gathering stage at this point. We don't have all the information. When we do have it, you'll be the first to know," said Board Member William Cook said at the committee's meeting on Tuesday.
Committee Chair Kristen Tool explained that she wants this meeting to provide much more detail than the one held for the project last year. That meeting, she said, caused significant confusion among residents about the project cost and the tax burden on residents.
"I don't want to have a public meeting like the one at Proprietor's [Lodge], where they didn't have any of the information, they didn't have what the tax burden was going to be," she said. "And everybody freaked out about the big number. And it just wasn't the right step to take. I don't want that to happen with this project."
The committee is currently waiting on a final site for the building as the town explores several potential parcels. It is also waiting on a finalized needs assessment from Architect Brian Humes, which needed to be updated after ambulance services became part of the project.
Tool said she hopes the committee will have the information needed to present to the public before the holidays. She explained that the committee has tried to avoid using social media platforms, such as Facebook, for major committee updates.
"I will not post what we're doing on Facebook for this committee because it's not public. Not everybody can access it. It's a private forum. And it's just not appropriate," she said.
The committee also discussed a recent federal grants workshop and has been exploring options for grant-writing help to reduce the cost to taxpayers. Tool said presenting grant information in addition to the committee's actions up to this point could help ease resident concerns.
"I am looking forward to the public meetings because I think this committee has accomplished a lot and solved a lot of problems at like zero costs to the town," she said. "... We're going to continue to look at this big cost and see how we can get money that's not going to be a tax burden."
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