CHESTERFIELD — Any synonym for the word “disaster” describes the current state of Chesterfield’s municipal buildings.
The town’s elected officials and employees are working in hazardous asbestos and mold-ridden offices in a former wood-framed school that was closed in 1994 due to code violations. There is no air conditioning, windows hardly go up, walls are cracked, and the roof leaks.
In addition, the town clerk’s documents are stored in plastic bins in a closet, but the oldest ones are kept in an small backroom closet with zero temperature control.
Meanwhile, the fire station, constructed in 1954, is actively a chamber of cancerous fumes, and houses the town’s fire trucks so snugly they are like shoes in a shoe box.
These conditions are no hyperbole, and that’s just the tip of the Chesterfield municipal facilities iceberg.
These conditions were brought before residents on Wednesday night in the Community House, where 30 people were there to learn the results of a three-year study of the buildings town government conducts its business in.
Two videos shown to community members, with town employees giving a tour of the current conditions of their workspaces, including Town Offices and the Fire Station. Before the videos were shown, consultants from Tighe & Bond Engineering gave a report of their findings regarding Town Offices, Fire Station, Town Hall, Community Center, and town-owned property at 6 North Road and Russell Park.
Mark Klitzke, after listening to the presentations, asked what the next step is for the town given the jaded conditions.
Select Board Co-Chair Trish Colson-Montgomery said that the purpose of Wednesday’s presentation to go over current conditions rather than talk about the future.
“Tonight is sort of the beginning,” she said.
Everything from processing people in the police station to getting marriage licenses at Clerk Sandy Wickland’s office happens in the town offices.
The video on of these offices chronicled mold growing in the basement, and muggy office conditions. There is no system in the building to clean and circulate air.
Asbestos abatement was done in the basement but not the first floor, which is where all office space is. In the hallway, asbestos tiles — breaking and peeling up — are no longer completely intact, which is a health hazard.
The building leaks from its roof to its foundation.
The Select Board office, meeting room, and other offices leak as the buildings flat membrane roof needs to be replaced. The video made it evident that the basement regularly has water, and Colson-Montgomery said just this past week, because of all the rain, the basement had more than an inch of water, and a commercial dehumidifier can’t keep up.
“You work here eight hours, you’re leaving the day with a stuffy nose and a sore throat because the air quality is just so poor,” said Colson-Montgomery in the video.
The air quality also impacts the town’s official documents.
“I’ve been the clerk since 1987 so I’ve seen a huge increase of paperwork,” said Wickland in the video, and showed where documents are stored.
“It’s not safe, it’s not a temperature-controlled environment,” she said, showing how the oldest records are kept in plastic bins, and had a bag covering her desktop while the roof was leaking.
Showing her storage closet so jammed with papers Wickland said, “I can’t open my door any farther.”
Visitors to the office fill out paperwork on a folding, collapsible metal typewriter desk about a foot wide, which Wickland said provides no privacy.
Then there are cracks in the walls and ceilings, the boiler is needing constant repairs, and employees have to organize their spaces based on working electrical outlets.
Fire Chief David Hewes didn’t have too many nice things to say about his station, which he called a cancer threat.
Firefighters statistically are more prone to get cancer, which he said makes retaining talent difficult. The station’s conditions only exacerbate the problem, he said.
The garage is so small that the fire truck can’t be equipped with a required valve designed to prevent diesel exhaust from being released when the truck is started inside.
“Some of these trucks start and they give off a lot of exhaust,” he said. “So that building has to be completely ventilated. Sometimes we take a fan out and we actually blow the smoke out of here to make sure it’s safe.”
In addition to lacking space to prepare equipment and do maintenance to the trucks indoors, the station doesn’t have a washing machine, which is required by law. Instead, firefighters must go to Goshen or Williamsburg to get equipment clean.
But the issue is not as easy as buying a washer and dryer.
“I got a brand new washer and dryer that I got on a grant eight years ago,” said Hewes. “It’s $20,000 worth of equipment, brand new in the box I cannot bring it into the building, first of all, because there’s no space.”
But the bigger reason is that the well outside the station wouldn’t be able to pump enough water to the washing machine.
Before the videos were presented, Tighe Bond consultants Madison Pixley and Tim Grace gave a presentation that recommended solar panels and generators for multiple buildings in town.
At 5 South St., where the community’s recreational hub is, would be able to accommodate development because the soil can handle water runoff better than other parcels in town.
For instance, 6 North Road was identified a moderate risk for extreme precipitation, flooding, and extreme heat, which they say limits any potential development there.
The report recommended installing an 80-kilowatt generator at the Community Center, where the town’s Council on Aging operates. Similar systems are recommended for Town Offices and Fire Station.
The resilience study was funded with $60,000 in Municipal Vulnerability (MVP) funds, and the two videos were made possible with $10,000 in District Local Technical Assistance funds from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.
Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.
