WILLIAMSBURG — At a special Town Meeting Saturday, residents will decide whether to authorize spending $5.1 million for construction of a public safety complex and demolition of the Helen E. James School.
The meeting will take place 2 p.m. at the playground of the Anne T. Dunphy School underneath a tent, with heaters if needed. Attendees will be asked to wear masks and practice social distancing.
The most prominent item on the special Town Meeting warrant is the appropriation, which is being recommended by the Owner’s Project Manager Steering Committee.
The committee was formed in 2017 to determine the site and scale of a new public safety complex. The architecture firm Juster Pope Frazier, which was hired by the town, determined that incorporating the school into the complex would cost an estimated $7.5 million, while doing the necessary repairs to the school and building a complex on the site would cost an estimated $6.7 million. By contrast, demolishing the school and building a complex was estimated to cost $5.1 million.
Jim Ayres, who chairs the committee, said that there have been three public forums about the proposal during the last few weeks, and that a fourth is scheduled for Thursday with alumni of the Helen E. James School. He said that once people understand the process that led to the proposal, as well as the data around the costs, they tend to favor it.
“Our sense is that support is strong,” Ayres said.
He also said he was encouraged by the online conversation that was sparked by the last Daily Hampshire Gazette article on the proposed complex.
“We see that online conversation as having been a very important step,” he said.
Ayres said that he hopes the weather allows for many people to come out to the meeting.
Jean O’Neil, another committee member, said the committee tried but was unable to find a solution that was cost-effective and would keep the school intact.
“I think it’s important for people to know that we really, really tried,” she said.
Should the article pass Saturday, the project would also have to approve a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion at an election April 19. Because the town has saved $1 million in the stabilization account for the project, only $4.1 million would need to be borrowed, Ayres said.
Public safety services in Williamsburg operate out of two facilities at the present time, one at 5 North Main St. in Williamsburg and the other at 16 South Main St. in Haydenville, both of which are in poor repair, Ayres said.
“If this doesn’t pass, the town’s really in a bind,” he said.
He said that there is no other feasible location for a new public safety complex, and that for every year the project is delayed, approximately 5 percent is added to its cost. He also expressed the fear that if the project isn’t started this year, it could get out of the range of the town’s finances.
The only other article on the Town Meeting warrant asks voters to approve the appropriation of $57,073 from the sewer enterprise fund to pay the balance of the fiscal year 2020 sewer service cost assessment to the city of Northampton.