DALTON, Mass.—The Select Board will review a request for a Special Town meeting during its meeting on Monday. 

 

The Public Safety Facility Advisory Committee is requesting a Special Town meeting to ask voters to approve allocating $100,000 for a feasibility study and grant writing. 

 

The committee was established to examine all the options for a new police station or combined public safety facility after it was demonstrated that the current police station in the basement of the town hall is no longer a viable option in the long term. 

 

After touring the town's station, the Williamstown Police Station, and reviewing the state's requirements, the committee was confident that renovating the current station was not a good option they would ever recommend. 

 

Committee members agreed that a new location was necessary, but to accomplish this, sites needed to be assessed to determine which location would be a feasible option, requiring a feasibility study. 

 

During the Select Board meeting on Monday, committee member Anthony Pagliarulo will give a presentation to update the board on their progress so far, demonstrate the need for a new location, and propose the next steps. 

 

The presentation will include a summary of their work, including the potential sites they have identified and a synopsis of their findings on the current inadequacies of the existing police station facility.

 

During the committee meeting on Tuesday, the request of $100,000 was determined after comparing the costs of feasibility studies for public safety buildings in other towns and anticipating the committee's future needs. 

 

The cost of a feasibility study is unique based on the number of sites that need to be evaluated, but it can range between $35,000 and $100,000. 

 

The committee agreed to narrow down the best sites to consider and felt that, based on the inflation rate, $75,000 should be enough to cover the cost of the feasibility study. 

 

The $100,000 request gives the committee the flexibility to evaluate between 2 to 3 different sites and leaves enough for grant writing services.

 

The committee also considered potential sites, including 385 Main Street, 197 Main Street, 450 West Housatonic Street, and 11 Cleveland Street.

 

They touched on the parcels' shapes, the properties' advantages, and the potential hazards or obstacles that could arise on the parcels. 

 

Tours of each location will be scheduled, and the committee will discuss the properties in depth at future meetings. 

 

Some concerns pointed out were the potential hazards and sounds from the railroad track that borders two of the properties, existing easements some parcels may have, the types of features on the property that could be challenging to work around, traffic, and location within the town.