The Sterling DPW Building Committee is having an information presentation and discussion 6:30 Monday night at the Chocksett Gymnasium to discuss the Town Meeting Warrant article for DPW Design Funds, Article 2. As a town resident I know this is a lot of money for the Town and I want to make sure everyone understands what the article is all about! Please come!
We have a diverse committee with representatives from the Finance Committee, Board of Selectmen, DPW Board, a town resident who grew up in Sterling and is now working for a major building contractor in Boston and myself who has lived in Sterling for 50 years and has been on a number of Sterling Building/site selection committees, as well as the committee for the Holden Public Safety Building. Our building committee has also hired two firms to help us and they employee two Sterling residents.
None of us want to pay any more for this project than we need to!
The building industry is currently slow and that means that if we can get our design out for bid soon enough we could save substantially compared to if we delay the project and go out when the market is likely to be much busier, and therefore much more expensive. This committee understands this opportunity and that is why we have been meeting extensively for the past six months.
A delay now could cost the town substantially for whatever we do, and we are trying to avoid that.
When I was on the Holden Public Safety Building Committee, I saw the article get voted down twice before it was finally approved. The original request was for around 13 million dollars. It failed and we went through the design and cut many features and reduced the size of the overall project. We went out to bid with the smaller project and it came in, a year later, at 13 million again. It was defeated and we went through reducing the design again and went out to bid a third time and it came in at…. 13 million dollars. Fortunately it passed this time, but the Town got a much reduced Public Safety Building at about the same price as the original request.
I don’t know where the 33 million dollar number came from for this project, but it is not based on any formal design or quote. We don’t have either yet. But we need to spend the 2.2 million so that we can get a hard number on the cost, and in the meantime you can be sure that this diverse, tax paying committee will get the Town of Sterling the best possible solution!
Please come Monday night, listen to our plan and ask your questions and make recommendations. As town residents we need to come together and get this project done!
Also check out other Meetups in Sterling.
