BERNARDSTON — After gathering figures and considering building plans over the past year, the Fire Station Expansion Committee is ready to bring a proposal to voters at a special town meeting next month.
Voters will be asked to approve a borrowing measure of $2.6 million for construction of a new Fire Station, as well as a borrowing measure to purchase the 5.62-acre vacant lot at 23 Kringle Drive that would be the site of the new station. Selectman Robert Raymond was tasked in May with negotiating the lot’s price, with owners originally asking for $695,000.
The meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at Bernardston Elementary School.
Fire Station Expansion Committee Chairman and Fire Chief Peter Shedd, along with committee member and Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Dutcher, presented the Selectboard with two draft articles during a recent Selectboard meeting. Dutcher explained both articles, if passed, would also require a Proposition 2½ override vote.
“We do not feel the town could afford this within our 2½ percent,” Dutcher said. “The town would have to make drastic cuts.”
Over the past year, the committee has explored numerous possibilities for a new Fire Station, initially considering expanding on the current station at 18 Church St. Shedd has said the current station is extremely overcrowded, with no room to store the department’s three equipment trailers and little office space.
However, due to space limitations on the Fire Station’s lot — even with a donation from neighboring resident Frank “Bud” Foster — residents who attended a November public forum recommended the committee consider purchasing other property in town to build a larger station that would accommodate the department’s needs far into the future. Since then, the committee has primarily looked into three properties that are for sale: the Kringle Drive lot, a 1.28-acre lot at 1 Brattleboro Road for $175,000 and a 3.5-acre lot at 1 Northfield Road for $595,000.
The committee — which is currently made up of Shedd, Dutcher, Selectman Brian Keir, Dennis Shockro and Tim Snow of the Fire Department and businessman Scott Digeorge — has focused its efforts on the Kringle Drive lot, with the Selectboard authorizing a $500 payment to hold the lot in May. The Kringle Drive lot offers the most room for expansion, wouldn’t displace any residents, and “definitely (has) no wetland issues,” Shedd said previously.
Hoping to keep construction costs down, the committee sought alternatives to a proposed $3.7 million building envisioned by architecture and engineering firm Stevens & Associates, which conducted a feasibility study for the town. In June, committee member Scott Digeorge reported representatives from Morton Buildings, a construction company in Westfield, estimated building a 7,290-square-foot station with 18-foot metal walls and 14-foot by 16-foot overhead doors would cost $1.8 million. Shedd said the building would feature three double apparatus bays, two being drive-thru.
The $1.8 million figure, Digeorge said, doesn’t include site, electrical, heating and plumbing work, which would be negotiated with other contractors. The $2.6 million figure being brought before voters, Shedd explained, is how much the committee expects the project to cost once all construction costs are factored in.
“We still might be whittling it down even lower,” Shedd said hopefully.
Shedd said the committee is currently planning a presentation for the meeting that will showcase the committee’s progress, offer an overview of the current station’s shortcomings and address the Fire Department’s needs. With input from voters, Shedd said he hopes the committee will gain perspective on how residents would like to see the project move forward.
“We’ve been sort of spinning our wheels,” he said. “This is going to give us direction one way or another. If the public’s not happy with this, we can go back to the drawing board. But this’ll give us a general overview of what the public likes, what they don’t like. … There’s no sense of having final plans done up if this isn’t what people want.”
The complete meeting warrant has not been finalized. The agenda for the Selectboard’s Wednesday meeting indicates the board will review a first draft of the warrant at that time.
Reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257