HEATH — The former Heath Elementary School will soon be the new home of the town’s police and fire administrative offices.
The move, though nearly a year in the making, has been made possible in large part due to a $50,000 grant Heath received this month through the federal Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program, according to Town Coordinator Hilma Sumner. The grant will allow the town to purchase and install a generator in the former school building, as well as build a radio tower and purchase a base radio through which it can make calls to and receive calls from dispatchers and emergency personnel.
“Everyone is excited and encouraged because the generator and towers will help tremendously in getting them into that building,” Sumner said.
The Heath Elementary School closed in June 2017 because enrollment declines made the school unsustainable; there were only 32 students in the final year, but the cost to operate the school with the state-required certified educators was more than $1 million. Since then, Heath schoolchildren attend Hawlemont Regional Elementary School in Charlemont.
In exchange for closing the school, the Mohawk Trail Regional School District gave Heath a $240,000 settlement, which was to help maintain the building until the town could find a new use for it.
Last year, the town put the building up for sale and received only one bid: $250,000 from Carnegie Arch LLC, which planned to use the site to cultivate, produce and possibly sell marijuana. But voters rejected that use. The school was built for roughly $3 million, but because the building is remote and does not have municipal sewer or water service, it has an assessed maximum value of $500,000.
Last winter, Sumner explained, the Heath Police and Fire departments appeared before the Selectboard to request permission to move their offices into the former school building “primarily due to the inadequate space of their current offices.”
Sumner said the board asked that the departments first look into what the cost of that move would be.
“They spoke about needing a backup power source — like a generator — and the communication towers, as being essential equipment … wherever their offices were located,” she said.
Although the Police Department’s need for the move is largely space-related — its current office is located in Town Hall and is not ideal for social distancing — the Fire Station on Branch Hill Road lacks insulation, plumbing and high-speed internet, she said.
“There’s no water in the Fire Department building,” said Fire Chief Nick Anzuoni. “You have to go to the Highway Department.”
He added that there’s not enough room at the current station for the Emergency Operations Center, which will also move into the school building.
“You can see anything from peering in the windows,” Anzuoni said, remarking on the size of the station.
With the Selectboard’s support, the Fire Department has used the building over the last few months as a meeting space for weekly Fire Department Association meetings, as well as Anzuoni’s office.
The grant will allow the town to purchase the necessary equipment to complete the move, as well as move the Police Department and Emergency Operations Center.
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.