Date: 10/31/2019
I strongly encourage you to attend the upcoming Town Meeting to be held on Tuesday, November 5, at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. There will be two related articles where resident will be asked to appropriate $3.3 million dollars collectively, of additional funding.
Article #14, is an additional $1.3 million of costs for the new DPW facility on Dwight Road. In June 2017, residents approved $21.2 million for land acquisition and building construction, opening bids came in $2.0 million less. At groundbreaking in June 2018 the project was expected to cost $19.2. The project is currently projected to cost $23.8 or $4.6 million (24%) more that at groundbreaking. The project has been adversely impacted by the discovery and necessary disposal by the Town of over 7,000 cubic yards of asbestos containing material (“ACM”). The Town has already spent $2.5 million on the disposal of ACM and is expected to spend another $0.6 million for recently discovered ACM. In addition, contractors are seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in delay costs. The project exclusive of ACM issues is within $0.2 of original budget which is reasonable. The project should have been completed by now but will take at least another eight months (June 2020).
Article #15 is an additional $2.0 million to complete Phase II capping of the Tina Lane landfill where the majority of the ACM from the DPW project was trucked to. Tina Land is an old municipal landfill that probably would have needed to be capped in the next 5-10 years. Disposal of the DPW ACM at Tina Lane saved the Town millions. However, The Town appropriated $800,000 to “permanently” cap Tina lane in August 2019 and there was no mention of a Phase II. Mass. DEP records from January and March 2019 clearly show that a Phase II would be needed. The Phase II should have been disclosed in August 2019. The Town would have eventually had to cap Tina Lane but $3.0 million has been brought forward to now.
There were four Town Meetings this year where residents were asked to vote on multi-million dollar expenditures and nothing was mentioned about the financial issues and construction delays at the DPW facility. You would have to have read the minutes of the Building Comm. or Select Board for partial information. The initial ACM was discovered in July of 2018. If you as taxpayers knew about the large cost overages and delays at the DPW facility then that is fine. If you did not then hopefully you agree with me that taxpayers deserve better.
I am asking for the new Town Manager and Select Board to publicly pledge at the Town Meeting that going forward they will collectively provide better disclosure and transparency to the taxpayers on fiscal matters and major projects, which I believe has been lacking.
Taxpayers, come to the Town meeting, you deserve an update from the town government, as you consider voting for these two Articles we are asked to pay for. In addition, if you are not happy with the transparency and disclosure shown to you then express your concern publicly at the Town Meeting and in advance e-mail the Select Board Members and Town manager now. Their e-mail addresses are on the Town web site.
Thomas P. Shea
Longmeadow
