HATFIELD — A task force is being formed to examine whether a metal building put up three years ago at the Department of Public Works yard on Elm Court could begin serving multiple town purposes, including as a home for some public safety personnel and storage for vital records.
With a plan for town facilities needed, including starting to move emergency services out its building in the flood plain on Main Street, and finding a place to store birth and death certificates, marriage licenses and other vital records, the site on Elm Court could provide that opportunity.
Located close to Interstate 91 and the Routes 5 & 10 corridor, the property includes the Butler-style building that voters at annual Town Meeting in 2022 appropriated $94,500 to put up, so the DPW could store salt, sand and other road material and restock those supplies in a location other than its main headquarters on Straits Road.
Speaking at the Select Board meeting on Sept. 9, held at Memorial Town Hall, Chairman Ed Jaworski said the Elm Court building is “sitting up there and unfinished,” and that there may be a way to frame it to two stories.
If that happened, it could be a place for vital records upstairs, while the downstairs might have police and emergency services, with three garage doors for three cruisers, he said.
Jaworski said he believes this could prove far cheaper than building a new police or fire station at this time, because it’s already half done.
The benefit is getting some of the emergency services out of the flood plain, “and we do get a use out of that building besides it just sitting there and doing nothing,” Jaworski said.
“It would be a great use for the space,” said board member Luke Longstreeth, and plans for developing the underutilized lot are a step in the right direction.
Select Board member Greg Gagnon said the task force would need to figure out how much all of this would cost.
Longstreeth agreed, observing this could help show whether the project is feasible now or in five years.
Town Meeting last spring rejected spending $140,000 to put in concrete floors and insulation in the metal building to make it suitable for vehicle storage and to have the town mechanic work from the building, with one voter commenting that improvements to the building would cost more than its construction had.
Should a move of police happen, the current Main Street police and fire headquarters could see some changes, such as bunk rooms for overnight ambulance personnel and more storage.
Eventually, if fire and police are both fully moved, the various apparatus bays could be a recreational space and perhaps additional room for the Council on Aging, which currently operates from the basement of the neighboring Town Hall.
Jaworski said that public pickleball courts have also been proposed for the Elm Court site., though it’s uncertain whether the site may be appropriate for that use.
DPW Director Marlo Warner told the board that the Elm Court site has plenty of room, so that if other municipal uses are contemplated there, his workers could coexist.