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Select Board identifies possible new DPW facility as top goal

Date: 10/16/2014

LONGMEADOW –  The Select Board, at its Oct. 6 meeting, discussed the possible construction of a new Department of Public Works (DPW) facility to replace the existing site, located on Pond Side Road.

Select Board Chair Richard Foster said there have been discussions to build a new DPW facility since the 1980s. However, this year, the board’s top two goals are centered on the DPW’s operations and the creation of a new facility.

“We voted to not build the new DPW complex where it’s [currently] at in the flood plain,” he added. “We have actually voted to remove [any potential building] from that location. That’s down near Pond Side Road, down near the conservation land.”

An engineering study by Tighe & Bond of Westfield was completed in 2008, revealing that the existing site was constructed on an old dump, the soil is very poor, and there are major utilities such a sewage line that runs underneath the parking lot.

The current site is also on a 100-year floodplain, he added.

“Over the years, the differential sediment has caused cracks in the walls,” Foster said. “And as a matter of fact, they just had a report as of just four days talking about a major wall repair down there.”

The reason why a new facility hasn’t been built in the past decades is mainly due to a lack of funding for the project, he explained.

“Usually, maintenance facilities and maintenance procedures are what [towns] defer because they’re out of site, out of mind,” Foster added. “Unfortunately, maintenance usually gets deferred and it always costs more money when you defer it.”

The next steps are to see if the board wants to move forward with a site selection and a preliminary design, he stated. 

In other business, Town Manager Stephen Crane said several months ago a resident from Quinnehtuk Road implored the town to investigate a way to mitigate bypass traffic on the road. such as designating it a dead end street.

“It is the [Traffic Committee’s] recommendation that the road be temporary closed for a term; six months, a year, to assess the situation,” Crane added. “We do believe that this is a unique and singular problem that is not as analogous to other cut through streets.”

The Traffic Committee  found that the roughly 2,600-square-foot street has heavy commuter traffic, half of which is from Connecticut, Foster explained.

“Every resident on Quinnehtuk Road has signed a petition asking the town to close the road and make it a dead end street,” he added. “Now, the history on the street is interesting because when it was originally developed it was a dead end street.

“Towards the end of the development, there were apparently two more lots down there and the developer petitioned the town to open it up and they allowed them to open it up.”

Crane added, “In the world of assessing traffic situations, from an engineering standpoint, you look essentially at volume data; meaning the number of cars and trucks; the speed data; how fast are they going, and then the crash data; how many times to people run into each other there, .

“And the crash data is what really drives the evaluation of something as being a safety hazard,” he continued.

The Traffic Committee identified Quinnehtuk Road has not having a high number of crashes, Crane explained. However, about 1,800 vehicles go through Quinnehtuk Road on a daily basis, which is significantly high for the residential road. The road was also found to have cars traveling slightly above the speed limit.

Foster said the town is seeking the expertise of a traffic engineer from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to review street data and make a recommendation for the board about its next step.

The board’s next meeting will be on Oct. 20 and articles for the Special Town Meeting on Nov. 18 will be discussed.

A citizen’s petitioned article is to use previously appropriated free cash for the purchase of a Quint fire truck is one article on the warrant, Foster noted.