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Date: 5/31/2023
BLANDFORD — The majority of Blandford’s mini-town meeting on May 22 centered on a discussion of the fire and highway garage project and the funds necessary to continue the process.
Town Administrator Christopher Dunne said residents had voted in March 2021 in favor of spending $120,000 from the Building Project Stabilization fund to start the process and hire a project manager.
However, at a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 14, 2022, residents voted down a request for $75,000 to continue the contract with the owner’s project manager, and against paying $180,000 for Weston & Sampson to come up with a schematic design for the building.
Although the room was closely divided — 35 against the funding, 33 in favor — the articles required a three-quarters majority to pass. The project manager funding was to come from the Building Stabilization Fund, and for the schematic design from free cash, money left over from previous year’s budgets.
Dunne said at the Annual Town Meeting on June 5, residents will be asked to vote for a transfer of $245,000 from free cash for the schematic design for a consolidated fire and highway garage.
Several residents who attended the meeting asked what the difference is in the requests in November and on June 5. Dunne said the key difference from November is this funding request will use free cash, which requires only a simple majority to pass, and the owner’s project manager fee has been reduced. He said he is also hoping to get a rural and small development grant of $300,000 for the project in the fall.
Dunne said currently there is $760,000 in free cash and $700,000 in the Building Stabilization Fund.
Select Board Chair Cara Letendre said the vote is needed to move forward, but no decisions have yet been made on a final design or location.
“We’ll have options,” she said.
Dunne said if it were to move forward, the town would be given several different scenarios, including phasing in the Highway Department portion of the consolidated building, if necessary.
He said the committee has also revisited several non-town-owned sites, looking for a central location to address emergency response time concerns, and also revisited the question of retrofitting the current highway garage to serve as the firehouse.
Dunne said the conclusions they reached are that the private sites are unsuitable due to the site work and costs concerns, and the fairgrounds, another suggestion that had been made, is not an option because they have no interest in selling.
Dunne said building a consolidated fire and highway facility on the 5-acre highway yard on Chester Road is not without challenges, but currently remains the best available option, in their opinion.
Residents at the meeting had questions about the tax impact of the project, and concerns about moving the fire station out of the center of town. All of the residents agreed a new fire station is needed. Select Board member Jeff Allen said he was on the committee and hadn’t been invited on any site visits.
Dunne said the Chester Road site is two miles out of town, and neither retired Fire Chief David Mottor nor Highway Superintendent David Waldron saw the response time from that site as an impediment.
“I was flabbergasted by how horrible it was going into that firehouse,” said Jackie Coury, who described herself as a new resident who will be investing in the community, and recently attended the open houses at the fire and highway garages.
Town Meeting begins at 7 p.m. Monday, June 5, at 1 Russell Stage Rd., Blandford. All registered voters in Blandford can speak and vote on the articles, which will include the town’s fiscal year 2024 budget.