WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Fire District's Building Committee discussed on Wednesday how it could put pressure on National Grid to upgrade the town's infrastructure to accommodate plans for a new net-zero fire station and other potential solar projects in town.

 

At issue is the district's application for interconnection with the utility's electrical service line.

 

The plan is to build a connection that will allow the district to both draw electricity from the grid and feed power to it from the solar arrays planned at the Main Street station.

 

At Wednesday's Building Committee meeting, the district's project coordinator told the body that National Grid will not allow the district to even apply for interconnection until 12 months from the date the new station is scheduled to come online in the summer of 2025.

 

If the district wanted to just hook up a new building to receive service from the grid, there likely would be no holdup, Bruce Decoteau told the Building Committee.

 

But creating a source for solar power on the site is a major element of the building project and part of how the district plans to meet the town's goal for net-zero carbon consumption.

 

"There are a couple of feeder lines from National Grid that come into Williamstown," Nancy Nylen of the town's Carbon Dioxide Lowering (COOL) Committee told the panel. "One of those comes by the fire station. The question is, is there capacity on there for the amount [of electricity] we're looking at. I guess they can't give the final word until you're 12 months from opening."

 

Nylen said that, previously, she had been told by National Grid's Director of Community and Customer Management in Western Massachusetts that there is limited capacity for interconnection in the town.

 

"It sounds to me there might be capital challenges," Building Committee member Donald Dubendorf said. "Might National Grid need to upgrade the line?

 

"Williamstown needs to grow. It seems to me we ought to start that conversation sooner rather than later."

 

John Benzinger of Skanska Construction, who attended his first Building Committee since Skanska was named the project's new owners project manager, told the committee that Williams College has had similar difficulty getting National Grid to commit on interconnection plans for large projects.

 

Dubendorf suggested that while the issue of capacity in the power grid is an immediate problem for the district, it is a bigger question that needs to be addressed townwide. And it would make sense to bring state Rep. John Barrett III and state Sen. Paul Mark into the conversation to see what pressure can be brought to bear on the utility.

 

Stephanie Boyd, another member of the COOL Committee who this spring was elected to a seat on the Select Board, told the Building Committee she recently was invited to a meeting next week with Barrett and Mark and asked if she should raise the issue.

 

"Of course," Dubendorf said. "This might be the last project we can get done in this town, and public policy suggests we should be doing much, much more and much sooner. How do we move this iceberg called National Grid?"

 

Dubendorf said the Building Committee needs to further study the issue and gather as many facts and figures as it can before making a direct appeal to National Grid.

 

At Chair Elaine Neely's suggestion, the committee's net-zero working group, which includes non-committee members like Boyd and Nylen, agreed to convene as soon as possible to begin building a case.

 

In other business on Wednesday, the Building Committee learned that the Prudential Committee last week in a special meeting officially finalized the contract with Skanska.

 

In his first act for the OPM, Benzinger, a 20-year resident of Williamstown, told the committee that the early site work planned for the new fire station site was put out to bid on the commonwealth's Central Register on Wednesday and already three potential contractors have expressed interest.

 

Benzinger said the deadline to submit bids is July 6 and work on preparing the land for a new building is set to begin around Sept. 1.

 

Meanwhile, the project's design development phase remains on track to be completed by the middle of August as specified in the project's schedule.

 

Chris Wante of architecture firm EDM gave an update on the progress of design development and used Wednesday's meeting to get initial feedback from the committee on some internal design elements.

 

"We've been looking mainly at the exterior of the building up until now," Wante said. "I want to get a sense from you if we're going in the right direction [on the interior]."

 

Wante showed the committee computer generated mockups of the potential front lobby of the building, which would include large windows for natural light, a prominent display of the Gale Hose Cart the district conserved in 2014 and a stylized mural of firefighters on a wall that extends from the first to second floor.

 

Wante said many of the interior spaces will pick up design elements from the proposed lobby but would be simpler with more of an emphasis on function.

 

"This is the first impression for the public, for potential volunteers coming in," Wante said, and the designers thought the district would want to make a good impression.

 

The committee generally approved the direction in which the design was headed.