Lee — For Fire Chief Ryan Brown, the October 2 announcement by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal (D – Mass. 1st Congressional District) that $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Congressionally Direct Spending (CDS) bill will go towards the town’s $36.7 million public-safety complex is a stress buster for residents who may be anxious about the high price of providing emergency services to the community.
“It helps us relieve the stress on a lot of the townspeople who are worried about the exorbitant cost of the project,” Brown said. “The project is very much needed. As we move forward to the future, our buildings are still in the past.”
At the Town Hall ceremony unveiling the grant, Town Administrator Christopher Brittain recalled the birth of the project in 2022, relaying a discussion he had with Brown and Police Chief Craig W. DeSantis. During that meeting, officials bemoaned the state of the town’s emergency services buildings, including an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) building “held together by emergency supports” and a 100-year-old police station that is “about half the size of what we need for our current police officers,” he said. “So, at that time, it seemed an impossible task to address all those issues, but now, two years later, we have approval from the town residents, we have property acquired for the project, a project manager, an architect that has been hired, and demolition should be starting this winter,” Brittain said.
Following residents approving an appropriation of funds for the design and construction of the 37,661-square-foot public-safety building in December, the corresponding ballot measure passed the town meeting on May 13 by an overwhelming majority. The complex will be located at 41 Railroad Street and incorporate fire, police, and EMS, while also including a community room to accommodate 75 to 100 people. Other departments and agencies are slated to move around as the Aeroldi Building and additional local government structures are demolished, with the Department of Public Works (DPW) soon to be relocated in a new facility at 1185 Pleasant Street.
The project also “revitalizes a blighted section of downtown Lee,” Brittain said.
“For a small town like Lee, a project of this magnitude takes support from the entire community, as well as partners at the state and national level,” he said.
The earmarked funds constitute one of only 13 CDS projects submitted by Neal from nearly $15 million of investments throughout his district, a news release stated. CDS projects are restricted to state and local governments, as well as some nonprofit entities. “We are also reminded at occasions like this of the role of police and fire in everyday lives,” Neal said, adding that he served in local government for the first 16 years of his political career. “Your request [for CDS funds] was entirely honorable and entirely needed.”
Lee’s public-safety project rose to the top of the list of candidates for the funds, he said, because “[officials] hit the ground running” with appropriate planning, including public input, already in place. Additionally, the town was willing to be a “partner,” not just relying on federal funds but using municipal dollars to bring the project forward. “One of the things I look to is what is the local community prepared to partner with,” Neal said. “I actually believe we can augment what local communities do. I would be hesitant if somebody said to me, ‘we want the federal government to fund this fire department.’ I don’t think that’s the appropriate expenditure. I think there are some obligations that local governments are expected to undertake. I do think when you present a really good plan, you can augment it from the federal government.”
Neal commended the municipal government as having the “courage to put this together and ask the citizenry at the local level to contribute.” “So, in terms of prioritization, they have a good plan here,” Neal said.
Lee Select Board Chair Gordon Bailey voiced appreciation to the congressman for the work he has done to bring the CDS project funds to fruition. “That’s a million dollars we don’t have to repay,” Bailey said. “One thing people forget is there’s interest over those 25 years on that $1 million we don’t have to pay so what this really amounts to is about $1,600,000 in relief for our townspeople. I think people need to keep that in mind.”
Brittain provided a tour of the public-safety complex site to Neal, accompanied by state and local officials:
Why Neal’s $1 million aid is important
The current fire station was originally a two-bay building constructed for horse-drawn apparatus, Brown explained. Although it has been modified several times over the years, he said the department “is just out of room.” According to Brown, the last engine the town purchased was sized just over 107 inches tall, and, with the bay doors posting a height of 108 inches tall, there isn’t much room for error. Currently, the department is spending additional dollars to have its apparatus built to fit the building rather than building the apparatus to suit the community’s needs, he said. A few years ago, the town’s fire truck cost $140,000, a shock to personnel at the time, Brown said. This last apparatus, however, clocked in at $780,000, he said.
Unlike many departments still existing in the Commonwealth that employ volunteers, the Lee Fire Department is staffed with full-time personnel but lacks suitable living quarters, Brown said. So, moving forward with the new facilities will take the town into the future, he said.
For Lee Chief of Police Craig W. DeSantis, the project means the department “can better serve the public safety needs of our community.”
One size fits all?
Neal was joined at Lee Town Hall by local and state dignitaries including State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D – 3rd Berkshire District), who advocated for the CDS funding for Lee and is spearheading a committee in support of regionalizing emergency medical and public-safety services. Calling Lee’s public-safety development plan “brilliant” for its 6,000 citizens, and acknowledging the same for Lenox who recently broke ground on a $20 million public-safety complex, he hesitated to describe the project as a model for all towns in his district. He distinguished smaller municipalities such as Alford and Mount Washington, advocating that shared services might be a better fit for those communities.
“Each individual town cannot afford to do these kinds of projects on their own, so they’d be better off and wiser to talk to their neighbors and do things on a collaborative basis,” Pignatelli said of the driving force behind the creation of his working group.
Currently, Pignatelli’s group—including town administrators, select board members, government department leads, and hospital and ambulance staffers—is waiting for the Commissioner of Public Health to deliver a meeting date, possibly in early November, to partake in a session that allows him to see what members are trying to accomplish.
Representatives of the towns of Richmond, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge have met several times since July in an effort to nail down whether a shared-services agreement between the three entities would be beneficial for all of their residents. Those efforts partly stemmed from https://theberkshireedge.com/west-stockbridge-firefighters-emts-to-walk-off-the-job-if-services-shared-with-stockbridge-not-richmond/ after the town’s dais explored alternatives to its years of sharing services with Richmond. A review of the conditions for emergency staff in Richmond and West Stockbridge revealed issues in the town’s department structure, as well as feasibility for continuing on their current trajectory.
“We’ve been spoiled by volunteers on both the fire side and the EMS side for well over a hundred years,” Pignatelli said. “But we’re getting smaller communities, a smaller population, and aging demographics as well. So, I think the [EMS] pool is somewhat limited, and the recognition that we need to provide quality service 24/7 for people is important, but we can’t depend on the volunteers like we once did.”
He said shared services will still allow the Berkshires community to maintain its identity but be more efficient while saving taxpayer dollars, especially for small towns. “It makes all the sense in the world,” Pignatelli said.
Timeline
Brittain said he is hopeful that environmental work on the project will begin next month, with the demolition of the Aeroldi Building, Quonset Hut, and DPW garage slated for early 2025. He estimated construction will begin during the summer of 2025, with the project due to be substantially complete by January 1, 2027, and move in set for the spring of that year.
The project’s manager is Skanska USA. Jacunski Humes Architects LLC serves as its architect group after completing the feasibility study for the complex.
