TURNERS FALLS — Among the hazards pointed out by Montague Public Works Superintendent Tom Bergeron during a tour of the current public works garage were cramped conditions, unsafe areas to wash vehicles and no proper drainage or fire suppression systems in the nearly 70-year-old building.
Montague residents will have a chance to vote whether they spend about $11.2 million on a new DPW facility at the annual town election May 21.
In preparation for the vote, the Montague Department of Public Works hosted an open house this week to allow the public to see what town officials say are the deficiencies in the decades-old facility and to view the safety issues and hazards the building poses.
Town Administrator Steve Ellis, Bergeron, Public Works Facility Planning Committee Chair Ken Morin and Town Planner Walter Ramsey were present to field questions about the proposed facility and the current building.
In the facility’s garage, trucks and other equipment are parked back to back, sometimes three or four trucks parked behind one another with bumpers touching. According to Bergeron, millions of dollars worth of equipment is stored in the garage, and if a fire broke out, it would all be lost.
In addition to vehicles, machinery and equipment that are stored in the garage, flammable materials like gasoline, acetylene and oil are also stored there.
There are no up-to-date fire suppression systems or venting at the facility.
The DPW doesn’t own the parking lot across from the facility, either. Montague Machine Company owns the parking lot and allows the DPW to park some of its trucks in the lot. Workers must cross Avenue A to get to the vehicles. In the winter, they must clear the large trucks of snow and ice, risking falls and injuries.
Bergeron motioned to a wet, sandy area on Avenue A outside the garage where a worker had washed off one of the vehicles partially in the roadway. Currently, there is nowhere else to wash the trucks.
Workers must also disassemble snow plows before parking vehicles in the garage, and this process takes approximately an hour.
“It takes away time from them taking care of the town,” said Morin.
Additionally, Bergeron says that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will soon begin overseeing public works facilities.
“I guarantee you, I could stand here and pick out at least three things wrong already,” Bergeron said, motioning toward the interior of the garage.
Bergeron also showed the office area of the facility, pointing out a workshop with a low ceiling and cramped storage, obsolete fuse boxes and the only women’s bathroom which is placed directly behind the foreman’s desk.
The Public Works Facility Planning Committee met 35 times within approximately two years and toured various nearby facilities to best design the new facility.
The proposed building would cost around $11.2 million, but according to Ellis, that number comes with “significant contingencies” built in, so it may cost less.
Ellis also said that it is less likely that those contingencies will be used since the building site was moved from an old burn dump to a site with virgin soil.
The proposal began with a 32,000-square-foot facility and now it is proposed as 25,500 square feet. Everything, including the garage, lockers, offices and work spaces would be under one roof at the new facility to save the cost on building materials. The facility will be divided up inside.
Some have compared the cost with Erving’s highway building, which is a quarter of the size of the proposed Montague DPW facility, but cost $314 per square foot. According to Ellis, Montague’s facility would be $304 to $349 per square foot depending on contingencies.
The town plans to sell the current public works garage.