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Date: 11/16/2022
BELCHERTOWN – The Select Board hosted their second meeting with different departments and committees to focus on their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds request on Nov. 8.
DPW Director Steve Williams talked to the board about multiple requests including a replacement dump truck, ventilation equipment for the highway garage building, a DPW storage building and a rehabilitation of the elevator in Town Hall.
The Select Board and Williams also again discussed adding the cost of the reconstruction project design of North Main Street to the ARPA request list.
They talked about the project at the Select Board meeting on Nov. 7.
Williams said the new dump truck would cost $255,000 and be used for road repairs, graveling, plowing and putting down salt or sand to reduce icy roads.
He added the town currently has seven trucks in the fleet, but they are always in need of repair and would like to add a new one that is reliable.
Regarding the ventilation system, Williams added “this is my number one priority.”
The funds would go towards setting up a negative airflow system with fans and suction tubes to pull exhaust fumes and air out of the highway garage maintenance area while it is being used.
“Currently we do not have a very good ventilation system. When we are maintaining or starting up trucks in the morning, the exhaust is going through the building and administration areas. It is a health and safety concern,” Williams said.
The DPW storage building would be an additional material storage area according to Williams, that would hold winter salt and sand as well as other materials that DPW uses.
Williams said the storage building would be a 35-by-50 foot canvas dome that would cost $100,000.
Recreation Department Director Kyle Thibeault discussed his three requests with the board.
Those requests included a robotic line painter for the Recreation and School Department, adding more roadway and parking behind Chestnut Hill Community School and improvements to the town beach parking lot.
Thibeault said that between the Recreation and School departments, someone has to re-line and re-paint up to 11 fields every week.
According to him, this robotic painter would save time and money.
“The initial painting of the fields can take anywhere from three to four hours and this machine would paint precise lines in 30 minutes,” Thibeault added.
The machine can produce different colored lines to help make the batter’s boxes for baseball and softball fields and help differentiate the lines for the lacrosse, soccer and football field.
The improvements to the area behind Chestnut Hill Community School would include adding more parking spots and extending the roadway to get closer to the basketball and eventual pickleball courts.
The town is in the process of adding pickleball courts that should be ready by next spring according to Thibeault.
Select Board member Ed Boscher said that the parking is already a safety concern, and the additional activities would only add to the problem.
The final request from the Recreation Department was to improve the parking lot at the town beach.
Thibeault and Williams said there are currently not enough spots, and the improvements would include removing a few trees, adding more spots and fixing the boat ramp.
Information Technology Director Kevin Hannon discussed two ARPA funds requests he submitted.
The first request was for $16,000 to have someone conduct a cybersecurity assessment for the town.
He would hire a virtual security officer to come investigate the town building computers for a period of time and put together the pieces for a cybersecurity policy.
Hannon added that he would then need to put together a cybersecurity committee to use the advice from the virtual security officer to make a cybersecurity policy that makes sense for the town.
His initial request includes an additional $30,000 to fulfill the anticipated to-do list that the virtual safety officer would give Hannon to complete.
Hannon’s second request was to improve the towns outdoor wireless connectivity by increasing the connection at the basketball courts, sensory trail and town common.
Select Board Clerk Peg Louraine added that she sees the need for adding better connection at the town common for events but does not see the need to add it at the basketball courts and sensory trail.
Library Director Cyndi Harbeson discussed her two ARPA funds requests with the board.
The first request dealt with improving the internet speed within the library and upgrading the public computers.
Harbeson explained that the library’s internet speed is below the current standards of acceptable speeds.
She added that she tries to have a schedule to replace the computers every so often but there was no room for replacement of the computers in the last budget.
The total cost would be $7,450 to upgrade the computers and internet speed.
The second request would be to fix the north entrance of the library while also preserving its historical context.
Harbeson said that the entrance is currently not big enough and is viewed as a safety concern when people are entering and exiting through the door at the same time.
The project would include extending the landing and replacing the two doors with one wider door.
After hearing all the requests over the past two ARPA meetings, Select Board Vice Chair Ron Aponte said he and the board will put together their own individual priority lists to determine which projects should be funded.
Select Board Chair Jim Barry mentioned that the board may need to still meet with a few more department heads to discuss some requests that have not been talked about yet.