BERNARDSTON — Five years after the property was donated to the town of Bernardston for use in its fire station expansion, the house formerly belonging to late resident Bud Foster at 12 Church St. has been knocked down.
The property was donated to Bernardston, for use by the Fire Department, by Frank “Bud” Foster in April 2020. Foster had originally offered to donate the property to the town in early 2017, but there were concerns from residents that this would displace the tenants who lived in the house at the time. Now, a half-decade later, the town has acquired the property and the house has been demolished.
“People have noticed the Foster house is down,” Selectboard member Stanley Garland said during a Oct. 6 Selectboard meeting. “It kind of was a quick move.”
Town Coordinator Louis Bordeaux received a call during the afternoon Monday, Oct. 4 alerting him to a change in the demolition company’s schedule and it could come to town sooner than expected.
“To our surprise, the next day, it was on the ground,” Garland said. “It was just about complete by noon-time.”
The town officially took ownership of the property in April 2020. Last month, on Sept. 15, Bernardston residents voted during a Special Town Meeting to transfer $5,000 remaining in an account that was originally designated for the demolition of the Hollywood building in March 2020 to a general “Renovate/Construct Town Buildings” account. Selectboard member Robert Raymond explained the town would apply the $5,000 toward the cost of demolishing the house on the 12 Church St. lot.
During the Oct. 6 meeting, Garland said the town has been working with Colliers International, which the Selectboard hired as the town owner’s project manager in August for a cost of $74,600. Colliers is conducting interviews to hire a design architect. On Tuesday, Oct. 12, they will meet with Jablonski DeVriese Architects, who designed the station proposal approved through Annual Town Meeting this past May.
In May 2021, town voters approved borrowing up to $3 million for the project. Support for the project was secured in the May 10 election when a 133 to 68 vote approve a debt exclusion to pay for the bond needed to construct the Fire Station addition.
Unfortunately, Garland this week said the town was “starting to see some problems” in pursuing the steel building design from the Annual Town Meeting proposal because of the slowdown in steel and the building materials supply chain. “To put a number on it,” Bordeaux said, some steel companies have cited being “as much as 20 to 30 weeks out on materials.”
“It might mean that we have to go the way of a wood structure — which is fine and not fine,” Garland continued.
On a positive note, he said, this could be considered a more visually appealing facade in the town center. However, it could affect the project cost. Garland said they are looking into different companies for various cost estimates and approaches, including the possibility of having a structure built offsite and then brought in to be placed on the property.
“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes right now to figure this out,” Garland said. “… We’ve got a lot on our plate and we’ll be working through it. The next few months are going to be very busy for the [Fire Station Building] committee. We know we’ve got a budget, and we’ve got to do everything we can to stay within that budget.”
Selectboard members are also continuing to seek assistance from state legislators for financial help for the overall costs of the Fire Station expansion. A petition which began in August asking the governor’s office to release $1 million that had been earmarked, but never guaranteed, for the fire station in a 2018 bond bill had collected over 400 signatures by September’s Special Town Meeting.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.