MONTAGUE — The town is looking into replacing what town employees call an antiquated Department of Public Works building.
If approved by annual town meeting voters on May 7, town officials hope to move forward with an engineering assessment for about $40,000 to estimate the cost of a new building on Sandy Lane at a former landfill site, Town Administrator Frank Abbondanzio said.
This past year, the town completed a feasibility study that found that the building at 500 Avenue A in Turners Falls is no longer adequate for the DPW. Department employees agree that the building, built in 1948, has exceeded its useful life.
“It is a typical old building. They have done some modernization over time, but it is not enough,” said Matt Cadran, office administrator at the DPW. He said there are issues with the heat, the plumbing and the electric.
The garage holding the department’s multi-million dollar fleet of maintenance vehicles is cramped. Some of the vehicles are stored outside because of lack of space, impacting the equipment’s useful life.
“We desperately need a new garage,” Cadran said. “It’s just an old building.”
If passed by voters, work on project design could begin in the fall. Construction could start in a year, Abbondanzio said.
It’s too early to speculate on what the total cost of the new building would be, Abbondanzio said.
The department is also looking to hire two new employees, a maintenance worker to look after the many town-owned buildings and a groundskeeper to maintain the town’s trees and parks. These new hires would take the pressure off a department that some officials say is understaffed. “Years ago we had a staff of 40 and now it’s 17,” Cadran said.
The town also has the burden of looking after several buildings that have been possessed by the town for back taxes, like the vacant Strathmore Mill complex, Abbondanzio said.