Williamstown, Massachusetts is looking at ways it can update its aging police and fire stations.
In the fall, the town formed a public safety building study committee to determine the best options for new facilities or one joint fire-police station. Selectwoman Jane Patton chairs the committee.
“Both of our public safety buildings currently, the fire department and the police department, are quite old; upwards of 60-plus years old each,” Patton said. “They have become outdated as a result despite a lot of effort and thoughtful planning by both groups to maximize the time in each facility. So it came about that we really needed to consider this.”
The Lehovec property on Route 2A has been identified as a possibility for a joint facility. A preliminary study conducted by Reinhardt and Associates of Agawam showed the 3.7-acre property is large enough, but a wetland study would need to be completed to tell if the land could house such a building. First, the firm must get permission to go on the private property. Meanwhile, residents voted down two attempts by the town’s independent Fire District to purchase the property for $575,000 last year. Chief Craig Pedercini leads the 26-member volunteer department.
“The reason it didn’t make it…I think because we have a few other projects going on,” Pedercini said. “You have talk of the police department and you have the talk of the high school. So there are some people that are a little nervous or scared of their tax rate increases that may come of it. I’m a resident in this town too, so my taxes go up just as much as everybody else’s.”
Both the October and December votes received majority support, but not the two-thirds approval needed. Pedercini says it was estimated the purchasing would have increased fire district taxes roughly 10 cents for every $1,000 for two years in order to pay off the cost.
“It was just a secure property,” Pedercini said. “We could have worked something out with the rest of the town when it came to building the high school and the police department and so forth. But the townspeople came out and they voted. We lost so we’re back to square one in talking again with the public safety committee in having them look at this public safety building.”
Pedercini says in 2008, a feasibility study by the Massachusetts office of Maguire Group Inc. determined the current 4,600-square foot station built in 1950 is no longer suitable for the department’s three engines and one tower truck.
“This building has been outgrown for probably the last 10-15 years with equipment,” Pedercini explained. “You can see out in the truck room with the size of our trucks. If you want to work on an engine right now you have to take that truck outside. If you want to tip the cab to get in it, because we don’t have the head room in here to do that, which is part of the reason for a new station to make a bigger garage bay.”
Pedercini says a design was drafted for a 19,500-square foot station, four times the size of the current one, to accommodate modern fire-fighting equipment. Sergeant Scott McGowan is the union president for the town’s 15-member police department and serves on the public safety building committee. He says the former Williams College dorm building on North Street, home to the department since 1966, as well as town offices, has insufficient space, inadequate holding cells and just one entrance, leaving the town unprotected.
“Bringing arrestees through that hallway who are under the influence of either alcohol or narcotics or are combative, we’ve had people unbeknownst to them enter the police station during those events,” McGowan said. “To gain access to the holding facilities, both the police officer and the person in custody, they have to travel a very steep and narrow set of stairs. That’s simply dangerous.”
Meanwhile, the Reinhardt report lists the former Williamstown Financial Center as a potential site for a police-only station, but seismic studies would need to be completed first. McGowan says the union would pursue that site, understanding the concerns that it would result in a loss of about $25,000 a year in taxes for the town. Calling the need for a new police station “imperative,” McGowan says a joint facility could save taxpayers money and simplify communication between fire and police, despite any sacrifices each department would have to make.
