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Date: 11/16/2022
BELCHERTOWN – DPW Director Steve Williams met with the Select Board on Nov. 7 to discuss a project that has been in the works for two years.
The project involves a reconstruction of North Main St. and will work on a mile of road from Route 9 to the center of town near Town Hall.
Williams said the project will include narrower travel lanes to slow down the speed of traffic, reset curbing, reconstructed sidewalks that are wider to allow for walking and bicycles, added parking, reconstructed crosswalks, new signage and road markings.
The estimated cost of the project is $5.6 million but Williams said that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) will cover the cost of the project. The town is only responsible for the design of the project.
The town received a 100 percent funded grant from MassDOT and would be awarded these funds if they showed that they were actively working on this project.
The project approval came in from MassDOT in August 2021 and in that approval letter, it gave the town two years to reach three milestones.
“This is to show the town is committed to the project,” Williams stated.
The three milestones included having a consultant prepare a scope of work for the design, have a signed contract with that consultant and identify funding for the design of the project.
Williams said the signed contract is pending because he first needed to find a source of funding for the reconstruction project.
The town is allowed to pay in phases so Williams had the engineer and consultant break up how much each phase would cost.
Williams said the cost to design the roadway would total $680,000 and DPW currently has a 10 percent design complete that has been sent to MassDOT for approval.
Williams added that the next phase will be a 25 percent design and cost $222,600. After that there will be a 75 percent design that will cost $237,700 and the final phase is the where the bid documents are prepared and will cost $207,800.
“The second and third phase of this design is a few years away, but I wanted to talk to the board to see if they are still willing to support the project and how much the town is willing to fund for each phase of the project,” Williams said.
Select Board Chair Jim Barry asked how DPW has funded projects like this in the past.
Williams said that the DPW used Chapter 90 funds for projects with some other money coming from the local government. He added that those funds have gotten slimmer and a third of each fiscal year’s funds would have to go into each phase.
“If we used Chapter 90 funds, this would reduce the amount of funds left for road maintenance in town and money used to offset capital purchases like maintenance to something like a dump truck. I am hesitant to say I can use Chapter 90 funds for all of this,” Williams said.
Select Board Vice Chair Ron Aponte asked Williams if his current submitted requests for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds can be paid in other ways and the reconstruction project can be substituted to potentially receive help with ARPA funds.
Williams said that everything is on the table and that he could comfortably use Chapter 90 funds for his “smaller ticket items” and put the reconstruction project in the conversation to receive ARPA funds instead.
Williams and the Select Board like this project and think that it is good leveraging of their funds as the town would pay $680,000 and receive $6.5 million back as a nice return of investment.
Williams and Aponte both stated that after doing plan studies years ago that this project is something a lot of residents stated they wanted to see happen.
Select Board member Ed Boscher added, “I am excited to see this project come back on the radar. There is no doubt that this becomes the number priority for me regarding ARPA. It hits all the requirements and hearing the return on investment of nine to one is music to my ears.”
Boscher said he would like to see the board pay the full cost of the phases with ARPA funds, but Barry wanted to wait to have another meeting with the department and committee heads to discuss their projects before making a priority list.
Williams said he would like to get back to MassDOT in the next few weeks but has until August 2023 to meet the milestones.
The Select Board added the reconstruction project to their list of ARPA requests and will discuss it during their next ARPA focused meeting.