Officials: Current DPW site not viable option

Jan. 28, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

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Town Manager Stephen Crane said he believes building a new DPW facility at the existing location would be financially and physically unviable.
Reminder Publications photo by Chris Goudreau

LONGMEADOW – Town Manager Stephen Crane hosted a public forum on Jan. 20 about the lack of viability of building a new Department of Public Works (DPW) facility at the existing site – an assertion some residents questioned.

Crane said the current DPW facility at 31 Pondside Road, constructed in 1931, is located on a 100-year flood plain and was constructed on a former burn ash dump with poor soil conditions.

“In a lot of places, either one of those two things are deal breakers on most projects,” he added. “On Pondside Road we have both to address.”

DPW Deputy Director Jeff McAlmond later said there are also monitoring wells for methane gas at the current site.

“There is a potential that it could be released, particularly if you start messing around underneath there,” he added. “The town would be responsible for the clean up and remediation. If it was significant enough they might have to put capture wells and flare it like you see over at Bondi’s Island.”

One resident asked what would happen with the existing site if another location were chosen for the DPW facility.

Crane responded by stating there would be a lengthy process to cap the former landfill.  

Jeff Alberti, a lead engineer for Weston & Sampson, which completed a feasibility study of the current location, said during the forum a portion of the site is not accessible for expansion and development by the DPW.

“There are wetlands,” he noted. “A portion of those wetlands actually extend on to the parcel. That’ll have some restrictions about how close you can develop the land.”

One of the main sewer lines for the community is also located near the DPW facility, Alberti said.

“That’s a major line that really cannot be relocated,” he added. “If it were relocated it would be a tremendous cost.”

McAlmond later said the sewer line runs underneath the DPW yard adjacent to the department’s salt storage shed.

“It connects to our main pump station that pumps to Bondi’s Island,” he added. “That sewer line takes all the flow from the entire town and it’s one line and it brings it to our pump station. If that line is damaged in the course of construction you’re probably talking a seven-figure response just to remediate it.” 

He noted the sewer is about 50 to 60 years old.

"You don’t dig them up because sometimes the dirt around them is holding everything together,” McAlmond added.

Crane said the project could cost approximately $12.5 million to build if constructed in 2017. An additional $3.5 million or more would likely be added to that figure if the Pondside Road site were chosen due to the issues at the location.

Weston & Sampson initially proposed a 53,000-square-foot facility, which the town reduced by 11,000 square feet.

“That translates directly to a 20 percent reduction in the cost of the building,” Crane said.

He said in 2014 the average cost for construction is more than $300 per square foot. In 2000, the average cost was $96 per square foot.

“The longer you wait, the greater the risk of a very expensive and catastrophic incident at the current facility you have,” Crane said. “If that happened the valuable services that the Department of Public Works provides this community every day are also at risk.”

The Town Manager’s DPW Task Force alongside Weston & Sampson vetted 120 town-owned sites and determined that the top two locations for the home of a new DPW facility were a section of Wolf Swamp Field and the privately owned Grande Meadows Athletic Club.

The Select Board recently began interviewing candidates for its own DPW Task Force, which would host public meetings, take minutes, and compile as well as vet its own list of sites for a potential DPW facility, he noted. The Town Manager’s DPW Task Force was legally not required take minutes or meet publicly.

Resident Michelle van Schouwen said she believes the current site “isn’t completely unusable.”

She added, “One of the many reasons people are here this evening is that we are very concerned about the loss of the playing fields that are in use on Wolf Swamp Road. That is a life value and has a value to the town that probably could be counted in a number of ways and I’d like to ask the town to please, with its committee, take that under very serious consideration. [The current site] is a better option than losing the playing fields. Grande Meadows is a better option in my mind.”

Crane later said the closest residential abutter to the Grande Meadows site is 295 feet away and the second closest is 700 feet from the location. The closest residential property to the Wolf Swamp site is 940 feet and the second closest is 1,160 feet away.

Voters approved $438,000 for continued design work for the new DPW complex at the 2015 Special Town Meeting and previously approved the project’s feasibility study for $250,000 during the 2014 Special Town Meeting.

Resident James Goodhines asserted 40 residents attended the 2015 Special Town Meeting.

Crane corrected Goodhines by stating 140 people attended the meeting and the vast majority of voters approved the continued design work.

“The proposal that’s being forwarded now is to remove a huge chunk of conservation land and sports fields and to replace a pre-existing non-conforming building that’s been there for 85 years,” Goodhines said. “Could you tell me in your study in the situation how many pieces of equipment we’ve lost in the floods in that 85 years?”

Crane said he didn’t know whether the town had lost any equipment due to flooding at the DPW facility.

Goodhines argued building a new DPW complex at the Wolf Swamp site would be “continually bombard” the area with fumes, traffic and take away parking spots.

Crane said he understands playing fields are a “big deal” for residents.

“The Parks Department is also under my jurisdiction,” he added. “I hear from sports leagues and I hope you would be able to believe that I’m not ignorant to the fact that the field space is highly valued by our community.”

Crane said if the town were to build at the existing facility it would be unlikely it would be insured due to the 100-year flood plain established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

McAlmond also gave Reminder Publications a tour of the existing DPW facility on Jan. 25. During the tour, he stated the left side of the DPW’s salt supply shed is currently inaccessible due to the potential risk of the wall collapsing.

“We had a structural engineer look at it two weeks ago and he’s declared it unsafe and feels that it could collapse,” he added. “We can’t go in there and get the salt out. [There’s] probably 500 tons of salt sitting there I can’t get at.”

He noted both sides of the doorless supply shed are supported by a telephone pole.

McAlmond said the building where the mechanic’s bay is located at is tipping. One part of the building’s floor is a foot higher than the other part. The building’s floor is supposed to be flat.

“They can’t lift the trucks up to work on them,” he added. “They just fit in [the mechanic’s bay].”

It would be “next to impossible” to fix the faulty footing on the building, he noted.

The building also “leaks in six different spots,” which is causing a great deal of rotting in various portions of the roof, including one of the support beams, DPW Lead Engineer Anthony Cassesse said.

McAlmond said about dozen DPW vehicles are also exposed to the elements on a regular basis due to doorless storage areas. The department also sometimes has difficulty starting the vehicles due to cold weather.  

“My six primary plow/sander trucks are all out here,” he noted. “They have a replacement cost of about $210,000 a piece.”

The unheated storage area – where seasonal equipment is placed – was built with asbestos, he stated.

The Longmeadow DPW facility is “probably the worst ones I’ve seen in my career,” McAlmond said. He’s worked in the DPW field for more than 20 years.

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