We need a home

Editor's Note: This letter was submitted to The Ashburnham Board of Selectmen, Tuesday, Sept. 5, by members of the town's fire department.

Mr. Chairman,

We, the undersigned members of the town's public safety department, wish to have this runaway train stopped.

We need a home.

Less than a year ago, we were 23 votes away from building our new public safety facility. As we see it, the town once had a chance to do this right. We all knew costs were increasing rapidly with fuel and construction materials, and all through the process, cuts and reductions were made. The project was pared from 32,000 square-feet to 26,000 square-feet, and as costs kept rising the quality of materials was subsequently compromised.

Finally, the proposed building had 4,000 square-feet of unfinished space. The original building was reduced from six bays, to five bays, to four bays and the hose cleaning/training tower was removed.

What was left was the minimum needed to maintain the ability to expand in the future. The sad part of this whole process is the fact that we could have been moving into this facility in October.

Your public safety departments and the original public safety committee always had the best interest of the town at heart. We had the public trust as proven throughout the first two years of this project.

This community has always supported, cared for, and held in high regard all of its public safety personnel, and this is why we have always strive to be the best possible professionals, and to be there to help our neighbors.

This trust was called to question last fall by Christopher Gagnon. It was his efforts and negative comments on not only the public safety building project and the committee, but also the fire department itself, that caused the failed vote for the additional funding. His comments along the way of how he could build the same building for the allotted funds, that it was a building "dripping with money", and "how it could be built out of steel and we could have everything we need" are just a few examples of an uneducated and uninformed individual that have misled the voters of this town.

Now that he is chairman of the new Public Safety Building Committee he has had the perfect opportunity to put into place all of "his" solutions that he accused the old committee of not taking into account as possible design options. Well, we are still waiting for these solutions.

A new building has been designed; thousands of dollars have been additionally spent in redesign fees, cost estimates, and appraisals, only to determine that our needs have not changed and that the original committee's numbers were right on. As of right now, the new building design has come back with a cost estimate of $271.42 per square-foot. This would be for building 5,000 square-feet smaller than the original design, with far more inferior building products being used with absolutely no room for expansion.

The original project would have cost the taxpayers $260.38 with more durable building products being used (such as brick and not sheet metal) with far less maintenance costs down the road and plenty of room to grow into.

Currently, the only option being pursued is another cost estimate being produced, costing several more thousands of dollars, to see what size of building the current balance of funds would by the town of Ashburnham. Both committees know that the answer is a much smaller building that would not meet the needs of all of the public safety departments.

So why is more time and money being wasted on this? These hardly seem to be better solutions for the taxpayers of Ashburnham. No more time should be wasted. The longer we wait the more costs increase and the less money we will have to build a facility.

We also have the following recommendation: We feel the only option left for the best interest of the town is to move to the hardware store property as this will give us enough space with room to grow in the shortest amount of time.

Is it the perfect site? No, but there is no perfect site or solution anymore. We feel the original building committee should be reinstated, as they have the knowledge and background, and have made the trips and inspections of numerous other public safety complexes and have thus gained a complete understanding of what the public safety departments need. Through hundreds of hours of time dedicated to this project, we think that it is only right that they should see it through to completion. If you feel the need to add a couple of non-negative members of the present committee, then that would certainly be acceptable.

Mr. Chairman, we also feel the Board of Selectmen should send a letter of commendation to the original public safety building committee, Mark Carlisle, Glenn Hathaway, Ellen Holmes, Officer Robert Siano, Chief Larry Barrett and Chief Paul Zbikowski, for all of their efforts and for dealing with all of the unwarranted negativity that was directed towards them.

As a final note, the members of your public safety departments will continue, as we always have, to protect and serve. We are here to help and aid our neighbors, citizens, and businesses in the most professional manner possible. That mission will never change.

Thank you, Ashburnham Fire Department