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NORTHBRIDGE, Mass. – A plan to purchase a building on Douglas Road for use as a Department of Public Works facility was unanimously passed over by Northbridge voters at the fall town meeting on Tuesday.
Article 4 on the town meeting warrant requested $995,000 to purchase the former Old Colony building on Douglas Road for use as a department of public works facility.
The Board of Selectmen recommended voters pass over the article at the request of the Finance Committee.
Initially, the plan was to purchase the building now and ask voters next May for $2.1 million needed to renovate it for DPW use.
Finance Committee members Lisa Ferguson said the committee supports the Douglas Road plan, but thought the entire project should be presented to voters at the same time.
“The Finance Committee voted unanimously to support the entire DPW project as a whole project,’’ she said, “but out of respect to the taxpayers, we voted not to support article 4; it’s only part of the project and fiscally irresponsible and unfair to taxpayers.’’
Instead, the Finance Committee suggested voters be asked to fund the entire project - $995,000 to purchase the building and $2.1 for renovations – at a special town meeting on Dec. 4 and special election on Dec. 17. The warrant for the special town meeting closes on Friday.
Town meeting voters also passed over several other articles, including requests by the school department to replace the gymnasium floor at Balmer School and the sod at Lasell Field, and a request from the Fire Department to repair the concrete floor at the Rockdale Fire Station.
Money for those projects was transferred to the stabilization fund, however, and voters will be asked to approve the projects at the next town meeting in May.
Voters also authorized the Board of Selectmen to acquire easements for the Sutton Street reconstruction project, accepted Sandtrap Court as a town road, and approved a overlay district map that combines six maps into one digital map.f
Comments (2)
Just A Guy,
You hit it on the head with this one! I am figuring almost $9-$10 Million Dollars for Douglas Road, when you figure keeping the old DPW site open also, and the lost additional revenue as you mention over the possible life of Douglas Road. If it should become a DPW, plus if you asked the top leading Engineers in the Country. If they would prefer a rehabbed DPW building or a DPW building that was designed from start one as a DPW, they would pick one designed from step one.
I am still scratching my head the Town already owns the property on Fletcher Street and at the Providence Road site, why not use that?
Are not the same people advocating for the Douglas Road site some of the same people that brought us the $8-$9 Million Dollar HKT Fletcher Street proposal? Plus combined with the $76,000 Fletcher Street DPW study that I understand now is being used for a big paper weight?
The Mitchell Boys really opened my eye's at the recent Town Meeting, have a feeling this half baked Douglas Road proposal will be rejected also by the Taxpayers in the long run.
The Finance Committee is out in left field on this one.
Why is there no mention at all of the amount of lost revenue to the Town? Between lost property taxes, personal property taxes, excise taxes, loss of revenue on sewer and water rates etc........... The amount of potential lost revenue by removing that property from the tax rolls is easily 2 million dollars over the next 50 years. Why have we not heard any mention of this?
The Douglas Rd. proposal will potentially cost the Town far more than the $8 million price tag everyone was so appalled at when first presented by HKT.
Douglas Rd. is a bad deal no matter how you slice it.