Williamstown Panel Looks to Coordinate Capital SpendingBy Stephen Dravis, Special to iBerkshires
10:37PM / Monday, September 17, 2012 | |
The replacement of the fire station is just one of handful of capital projects facing Williamstown in the coming years. The Finance Committee invited the Fire District and other entities to its meeting Thursday to prioritize the list. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — According to estimates by the chairman of the town's Finance Committee, Williamstown is looking at proposed building projects whose combined costs are in the neighborhood of $90 million to $100 million.
That, Charles Fox points out, is not realistic for a town of about 8,000 people.
On Thursday, Fox's committee will try to help the town evaluate and start prioritizing its long-term building needs.
The 7 p.m. meeting at Town Hall was sparked by plans by the Williamstown Fire District to build a new fire station to replace the facility on Water Street.
Fox said that project alone could cost about $25 million — money that would be spent not at town meeting but at the Fire District's annual meeting.
"There are, in fact, two taxing entities in Williamstown," Fox said on Monday. "It's not simply the town of Williamstown in the formal sense, but also the Fire District, which is a separate entity altogether. It has its own governance, its own annual meeting, its own budget, its own taxing capacity and its own capacity to vote capital projects that become the responsibility of the taxpayers of Williamstown to fund."
What the Fire District does not have is the attention of those taxpayers.
The Fire District's annual budget is about $470,000 — far less than the $6.5 million town operating budget, $5.3 million elementary school budget and $4.6 million Mount Greylock Regional School District assessment, which all are approved at town meeting.
The 2012 annual meeting of the Fire District drew 45 voters shortly after a member of the Prudential Committee (which oversees the district) was quoted in a news article saying the district was considering acquiring land for a new station.
That was a relatively high turnout for the Fire District meeting.
In 2011, with no new fire station on the agenda, the Fire District annual meeting drew 27 voters.
"It is a concern for me ... that this independent entity, which attracts very few taxpayers to its annual meeting, has the capacity to impose on all of the taxpaying citizens of Williamstown some very significant taxing burdens for such a capital program," Fox said.
It is even more of a concern in light of other capital projects under consideration in the town. The most significant is either a major renovation or replacement of Mount Greylock Regional High School. Williamstown is the largest town in the district, and a new school or overhaul would run in the neighborhood of $50 million, Fox said. A recent renovation at Hoosac Valley High School in Cheshire was budgeted at just more than $40 million.
Other Williamstown projects in the planning stages include a new police station and renovations to Milne Public Library. At town meeting last May, voters approved a little more than $143,000 for design and engineering on a new police station to replace the aging town hall facility.
Fox said he approached the three-member Prudential Committee to see if it would meet with the Finance Committee to discuss the proposed fire station and other proposed projects in a public forum.
The police station, above, public library and Mount Greylock Regional High School are all in line for improvements. |
To his delight, they accepted the invitation to Thursday's session, as have representatives from the Mount Greylock school district, Police Department, library and Hoosac Water Quality District, which is operated by Williamstown and North Adams.
"I think it's a really important meeting for the town, the taxpayers of this town," Fox said. "I think people need to be alerted to this meeting. People have got to begin to be aware that we have an incredible set of financial issues facing us at a time when growth is next to nil."
Fox said he appreciates the Fire District's need for a new facility, but other entities may be in more dire need.
"The fire station has limitations," he said. "The police station is absurd. Strictly speaking in terms of the pressure of overcoming an antiquated public service system, the police have a much more problematic situation than the fire station currently has — even though I do agree that the fire station needs to be upgraded.
"It's hard to imagine Mount Greylock [Regional High School] being able to continue as it is for another decade. It's inconceivable. The problems are pretty great up there."
Fox said the danger of not looking at all of the town's capital needs at once is that one project could be funded, burdening taxpayers to the point where others will not even be proposed.
"The fear is that the Fire District would move in a way that was not in coordination with other necessary projects in the town," Fox said. "The concern is that this could run off on its own without a broad base of taxpayers and a significant number of taxpayers being involved — that is to say a number of taxpayers more or less akin to the number of people who attend a typical town meeting. That's 400 to 600 people, not 20 to 30 people."
Thursday's meeting will be telecast live on WilliNet, the town's community access television station.
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