The Public Safety Facility Feasibility Study Committee on February 14 agreed with consultant Ted Galante’s new focus for examining whether to combine, replace or rehab the town’s police and fire stations.

            At the conclusion of Gallante’s presentation on study options Tuesday afternoon, he and the board agreed his firm will focus on a plan to renovate and expand the 26 Dexter Lane police station, build a new fire station headquarters at 65 Pine Street and further down the timeline, build a fire sub-station at 0 High St., where a quicker emergency response will be needed when a proposed senior housing development is built at Route 58 and 28.

            With both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ construction and associated costs included, the two-site plan will cost roughly $32 million, Gallante said. The sub-station plan will bump that cost up to $35 million.

            Gallante clarified that his current estimates don’t yet include what kind of ‘programming’ planners will decide will go in these new interiors.

            He began the meeting by detailing all the options for what he called a Master Plan for improving the town’s public safety facilities. At 26 Dexter Lane, the town could expand and modify the existing police station, which right now suffers from lack of adequate space. The small sally port and conference room would be taken down and replaced with a new, larger sally port and a two-story extension. At 65 Pine St., the town would build a Fire Department headquarters or a combined police/fire facility.

            Before the board agreed to these two plans, another option, Gallante said, is building a new fire or police station at 0 Mendell Road, though this parcel is not town-owned and includes wetlands.

            The advantage to 0 High St. is that it is town-owned, town administrator Glenn Cannon said. Fire chief Scott Weigel said the sub-station proposal for that location should be part of a five-year plan because the senior housing project is only in its developmental stage.

            Board member and selectman Brad Morse suggested the panel vote on which option it prefers. But other members said that will be rushing matters.

            Board member David Arancio said that as town moderator he knows the public will need a ton of information to make a wise decision on this project at town meeting. He said the target should not be to schedule a vote on this for the May’s annual town meeting.

            The board agreed, leading Gallante to happily conclude his firm will be able to just focus on the conceptual plans and budget figures for these options and return with them at the next meeting. That meeting was scheduled for March 14 at 2:30 pm in the meeting room of the Town Office Building, 1 Constitution Way, Rochester.

            The February 14 meeting also featured committee members noting that the Rochester Country Fair, which took place annually at 65 Pine Street, has been discontinued; the fair committee has disbanded.

Rochester Public Safety Facility Feasibility Study Committee

By Michael J. DeCicco

Marion stakeholders are determined to build the town’s new Department of Public Works operations center on the $4,500,000 budget approved by voters last year at Town Meeting, and they intend to do it by internally handling as many tasks as legal and possible and bypassing a general contractor.

            Some tasks, lead architect Will Saltonstall told the Marion DPW Building Committee during Monday’s meeting at the Town House, can fall into the “self-perform” category, “rather than bundling this whole package and sending it out to GAC.”

            After budget numbers came back from project estimators, Ken Motta of Field Engineering produced a site plan to further examine costs at Benson Brook.

            Saltonstall suggested that the salt-shed assembly can fall into the self-perform category, along with other parts of the infrastructure, including the sewer line that will run from the facility to its connection to town sewer. That can be taken care of ahead of facility construction.

            “Everything on the project-cost side of things,” said Saltonstall, will go out to general bid, but “there are quiet costs that you don’t have to add in there. … We can still get to our budget. … Think Rochester facility.”

            Still on the table are three distinct construction strategies: 1. a preengineered metal frame on a concrete foundation, such as the Rochester DPW facility; 2. a stick frame wood with wood truss roof on a concrete foundation, such as the Sandwich DPW (believed to cost $145,000 more); and 3. a preengineered wood frame pole barn on concrete tubes, such as a Morton brand construction.

            As of November 2021, total project cost for the new Marion DPW was estimated at $4,399,024. It has since jumped to $7,938,140 primarily due to change from a two-building design (operations center and vehicle maintenance/storage) to all in one. The salt shed remains a separate construction.

            While the consolidation into one building is meant to eliminate redundancies in construction and infrastructure, the redesign also resulted in a plan to close the sides of what was going to be a preengineered metal vehicle-storage building, doubling the size of that structure and resulting in a $2,046,933 increase.

            The cost of a general contractor has doubled since November 2021 from $462,627 to $934,947.04.

            A do-it-yourself approach cannot be applied to operations/vehicle-storage construction and salt-shed assembly, but it can reduce sitework from $1,207,985 (January 2023) to $400,000 (less than the November 2021 budget figure of $684,818) and it can reduce the cost of a general contractor to $509,053.95.

            Saltonstall’s six-part “potential construction strategy” will lean heavily on cooperation from various subcontractors and good fortune with supply chains.

            Randy Parker, the Select Board’s representative to the committee, told the members he will approach Upper Cape Tech about the school’s interest in using the project for student experience.

            Saltonstall recently met with a Morton representative, noting that the company known for its preengineered buildings is outside of the committee’s cost estimator.

            Parker said that Morton “does a lot of things on their own” and likes their insulation product. “All the Morton buildings today are capable of taking solar … earlier in this conversation they were not.”    Parker also noted that Morton guarantees its paint for 25 years.

            Construction still must go through a public bidding process, noted Saltonstall.

            After much in the way of careful discussion regarding the many moving parts in a partly do-it-yourself strategy, the committee discussed next steps.

            Saltonstall told the committee he will meet offline with the DPW crew and specifically with Ken Motta of Field Engineering to draw from his expertise on site costs and gain a better understanding of critical time factors and the schedule. He will also seek feedback from Morton buildings on construction costs and engineering.

            Morton offers buildings in standard sizes that can save the town money by tweaking its design dimensions to Morton’s existing standards.

            Saltonstall anticipates another public meeting within a few weeks, but the committee needs more information before setting a date.

Marion DPW Building Committee

By Mick Colageo

The February 14 meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board found the members not only filling empty seats on various boards and committees but also noting the number of seats that are up for reelection or to be filled with new faces come May 16.

            Mattapoisett’s 2023 Election Nomination papers have been available since January 30 with the last day to request papers being March 24 at 5 pm. One of the seats that will become vacant is that on the Select Board. Tyler Macallister’s term will be ending. When asked if he will seek reelection he stated, “The jury is out.”

            Other seats coming available include that of Town Moderator. After more than 20 years as the Town Meeting voice (along with other responsibilities) Jack Eklund is hanging up (or dropping) the microphone. In a letter to the Board, he said he would not be seeking reelection in May.

            Another pivotal position up for reelection is that of the Town Clerk. Other seats are: assessor, Mattapoisett School Committee, two seats on the Old Rochester School Committee, two seats on the Trustee of the Public Library, water/sewer commissioner, Board of Health, Planning Board, Mattapoisett Housing Authority and two seats on the Community Preservation Act committee. Complete details are available at Mattapoisett.net.

            On this night, the Board also appointed five new members to various committees. They are, Jan Brodie to the Mattapoisett Tree Committee, Lauren Rosa and Cecile Callahan as members of the Council on Aging Board of Directors, Bonne DeSousa to the Mattapoisett Bike Committee and Jennifer Wong as a member of the South Coast Bikeway Alliance. The Board also accepted resignations from Seth Asser from the South Coast Bikeway Alliance and Steven Cassidy from the Old Colony School Committee.

            The Board also formally established the Holy Ghost Reuse Committee charge the essence of which is to explore opportunities for effectively using the 5-acre parcel. The committee will be comprised of members from the Recreation Department, Highway Department, Council on Aging, Capital Planning, an interested party for a future dog park at the location and two at-large members to be selected by the committee. Lorenco said that the town is seeking grant opportunities that may be used to make improvements and renovations to the existing structure and the grounds.

            Updated Harbor Rules and Regulations will finally see the light of day after several years’ worth of meetings, discussions and revisions by the Marine Advisory Board. Chairman Carlos DeSousa said the majority of the changes were formatting issues and grammatical errors that needed to be corrected. The new edition will also include a fee schedule that was also recently updated. All that is left to do now is post the revised document for public review and comment and hold a public meeting, Board Member Jordan Collyer stated.

            The Board discussed the opening of bidding for one concession location at Shipyard Park. It was noted that every three years, the singular concession site must be opened to requests for bids. Those interested will find details at Mattapoisett.net at the end of February.

            Lorenco updated the Board on the status of the Long Wharf construction project. He said the town’s engineering firm Childs Engineering is researching contractors to perform test borings and exploring possible cost saving measures. He also said that the 2021 Annual Report was now complete and will be posted to the town’s website.

            The Board will meet on February 15 at 6 pm to discuss departmental budgets for Water/Sewer Enterprise Funds, Highway Department, Town Library, Board of Health and Council on Aging.

            The next regular meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board is planned for February 28, time to be posted.

Mattapoisett Select Board

By Marilou Newell