CONWAY — Better days are just down the road for the Highway Department, with Sunday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the maintenance facility marking the near-end of a decades-long journey.
Although a Highway Facility Committee was formed around four years ago, discussions surrounding a new maintenance building reach back much further. Early planning began in 2004, while interest was recalled as far back as the 1970s. Voters then rejected a garage proposal twice in 2014. Considering the length of the process, committee member and Police Chief Ken Ouimette said Sunday’s opening ceremony inspired “a great sigh of relief.”
“It’s a day I’ve been looking forward to for four years and one month,” said Highway Facility Committee member Walter Goodridge.
Committee members described cramped, outdated working conditions at the former highway facility at 15 Ashfield Road (Route 116). In addition to housing Highway Department equipment, the brick building has an ambulance bay and two Fire Department bays. The highway crew had two and a half bays to fit its vehicles and equipment, inhibiting the efficiency of operations, Ouimette said.
“It’s better than being outside,” Ron Sweet, highway superintendent and Highway Facility Committee member, said of having a new facility.
By comparison, the new maintenance building at 26 Fournier Road features working bathrooms and both hot and cold water, basic amenities the former facility lacked. It also has a kitchen and office space. Most glowingly, the building committee highlighted the wash bay capabilities of the building.
“Everything here has been brought up to the current standards of what they could be,” said Highway Facility Committee member Henry Horstmann. “It’s unbelievable how nice it is to work in here.”
Residents agreed to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds $988,000 for the building during a Special Town Meeting in December 2019. They also voted to transfer $50,000 from free cash to the general fund, and $433,243.51 from the highway garage stabilization account to the general fund to partially finance the facility. The Highway Facility Committee now projects that the facility, which is “about 98%” complete, will come in under budget.
The building was engineered by Bernardston’s David Vreeland, who “did a tremendous amount of good work,” Goodridge said. Westfield’s Kurtz Inc. constructed the building, having also served as the contractor for a 7,500-square-foot storage shed built adjacent to it.
“I feel incredibly fortunate that he won the bid for both buildings … because it’s similar construction,” Goodridge said of contractor Gene Kurtz, who employed similar materials and aesthetic decisions between both structures.
Franklin County Technical School installed the mechanical and electrical systems. The Highway Department conducted its own excavation, landscaping, stonework and layout work, Goodridge said.
“I’m in awe of what this community has done together after so many years of effort,” state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, said after presenting Sweet with a certificate signed by herself and other state legislators. “The fact we are standing here today is really a testament to the strength of this community.”
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.