The DPW Fire Station Advisory Committee met yesterday for a lick-your-wounds strategy session after one of two proposals failed on the floor of Fall Town Meeting.
Specifically the $350,000 requested for a more advanced schematic design phase study of a new DPW building, which seemed like a lot of money compared to the $75,000 Town Meeting approved for an initial Fire Station study.
If the Fire Station can now catch up to the DPW by spring then the Committee will recommend two separate warrant articles for the Annual Town Meeting of around $350,000 each for the required schematic design phase, although most members agreed it would be helpful if each project had identified a building site by then.
The plan still seems to be for the Fire Station to locate where the DPW is now but town officials have now given up on Fort River School as a DPW relocation site.
Chair Lynn Griesemer was adamant the very preliminary proposed "ideal" DPW building is simply too expensive especially given it's three times that of the new Fire Station ($37 million vs $12 million).
Weston & Sampson preliminary cost estimates new DPW
Over the next few months the committee will work with consultants Weston & Sampson to try to bring down the cost which normally does happen once a site is selected.
Another suggestion is for the committee to propose a maximum cap, say $25 million, and ask the consultants what kind of a DPW building can they come up with for that amount.
Anything of course would be an improvement over what they have today.
DPW is located in 100 year old former Trolley repair barn in a really nice neighborhood
23 comments:
That is a joke right, $350k for a dpw building study?
Yep. And another $350K for the Fire Station.
This is now dollars looking for a reason to spend. Taxes are high. Just keep our current DPW. It's the best solution.
It does seem very reasonable to first decide how much to spend, then to plan a building within a fixed budget. Don't most households and companies do this? Both the Wildwood project and Jones Library expansion could use this sensible idea.
"Over the next few months the committee will work with consultants Weston & Sampson to try to bring down the cost which normally does happen once a site is selected.
Another suggestion is for the committee to propose a maximum cap, say $25 million, and ask the consultants what kind of a DPW building can they come up with for that amount."
Sure wish the school building committee knew how to do this!
Mr. Kelley,
Have you ever been in this building, is it a functional work space for a department?
If not, what are the current defects?
Thanks
Too numerous to mention.
https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/35066
Thank you for the link.
Very informative, albeit maybe slightly bias if they're trying to get the design work as well.
A school is a much more complicated building than a DPW building. We could have had a 60 odd million dollar building for about what was it. 34 million? But no. Our illustrious town meeting was having none of that!
We don't need a 65 million dollar building by award winning designers.
A building does not define a school.
While it seems like the town's portion would be 34 million...
There will be lots of additional costs in demolition, building and outfitting a new school (not to mention the funding needed for the planned early childhood center) that MSBA will not be helping us with!
BTW- It's not just Town Meeting (and/ or SASS) that is saying "No" (and the building committee and school supporters need to recognize it!)
uhh? The town portion (with interest) is something like $52 million (and that doesn't include the alteration costs for CF or decommissioning FR).
Blogger Larry Kelley said...
Too numerous to mention.
December 10, 2016 at 6:03 PM
Spoken like a true authoritarian....how else do you justify endless funds for steel buildings with radios...
...again all this conteoversy, just subcontract it to the private sector...you get savings and folks can move on....nothing to do but dangle payments for service....folks can focus on their own families and havr more money to spend on them...win...win...win...win...won.
The current DPW site is not good for a fire station. Should be near a cross-roads instead, like Pomeroy Lane and Rte116 - that would offer good east-west access as well as north-south.
But how will fire trucks get to places along Rte9 (Colonial Village, e.g., or Rolling Green) east of Amherst College with all the RR bridge underpasses? They'd either have to up to Main St or all the way out Station Rd and through Amherst Woods.
Please keep adding up all these millions for expensive projects and be mindful of the figure. Your taxes are going to rise for years and years as a result of all this spending. Be wise and spend carefully. Do you realize the town's debt, the state's debt and the nation's debt? What if you lose you job? Ever hear of "saving for a rainy day?"
I hope we can trust our elected officials and Town Meeting members to be very careful with our money.
Really? A new dpw building? For what?
Sounds like Amherst has a lot of money lying around. Good information.
Well we do have $12 million in reserves.
And if it was my call we would spend it tomorrow building the new Fire Station.
Reserves are for shortfalls in tax revenues and emergency situations.
Well 10 or 12 years ago they were at almost zero and we managed to survive.
I love you Larry but that last remark lacked logic.Five years before the depression my grandfather had a job. So?
How can we throw around money towards a fire station when our schools are in such disrepair? My property values are tied to the schools and their reputation not a brand new fire department.
Reality Check:
Fire Department provides services to all town residents, saving lives and property 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Schools are only open 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 180 days a year.
The central fire station is in terrible shape and also not large enough for modern day apparatus. Our town has been told repeatedly that this needs to be done.
Your property values and also your homeowners insurance rates are tied to the response you get in an emergency.
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