By John Collins
The Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
| Related Coverage: Financial Crisis and the Fire Service |
PELHAM, Mass. — Citing the economy, Pelham selectmen decided not to put a new fire-station proposal on the Town Meeting ballot this March.
But at Pelham Town Hall this week, a group of residents, led by William Scanzani, submitted a petition that ensures that residents will get to vote for a third straight year on whether to fund a new central firehouse.
“Everybody knows we need a fire station,” said Scanzani, a former Planning Board chairman. “Everybody knows the economy is tough. But to not give the voters at least that opportunity to make a decision, I think, is wrong.”
The petition warrant article asks: “Shall the Town vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $4,700,000 for the purpose of erecting a Fire Station?”
Among the 60 names on the petition are Pelham Police Chief Joseph Roark and Selectman Victor Danevich. One signature that does not appear is that of Fire Chief Mike Walker, whose frustration over not getting a new firehouse built could have contributed to his decision to take the job as fire chief in Yarmouth, Mass., starting Feb. 2.
Pelham Planning Director Jeff Gowan said he would have also signed the petition “in a heartbeat” if asked.
“It’s not my job to question the selectmen’s decision-making process,” Gowan said. “But it’s my personal belief that it’d be better to have it on the ballot than not, and let the voters make that decision.”
Gowan said he has been in favor of the dual-roundabouts makeover option for Pelham Town Center. From any planner’s perspective, he said, it makes the most sense to build a new fire station elsewhere in town as part of that project.
“I certainly hope the fire station garners voters’ support, but I think in this economy, reaching 60 percent is quite a challenge,” Gowan said.
If voters again reject a new fire station, they risk forcing the town to return about $175,000 in impact fees collected from residential developers specifically to pay for a new fire station, Scanzani pointed out.
“Most of the people who signed the petition favor building a new fire station while we can still do it at very low cost,” Scanzani said. “Interest rates are down, construction costs are down, so we can build at a lower price than we could before. And we won’t have to give back the impact fee money.”
Last March, plans to build a $4.3 million fire station on the Mills Property off the Village Green failed by a vote of 2,225 to 1,669.
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