Peru pols eye new fire station Proposed facility would cost $650K

By Dick Lindsay, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Updated: 06/01/2010 06:06:28 AM EDT


Tuesday June 1, 2010
PERU -- Town officials are seeking support for a new fire station at Peru's annual Town Meeting later this week.

The proposed $650,000 facility highlights the 39-article warrant voters will act on Saturday, 7 p.m. at the town's community center.

The project moving forward hinges on a two-thirds majority approval at the town meeting to borrow money for construction and voters excluding the debt from Proposition 21 2 at the town election on June 12.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Douglas Haskins said a modern-day firehouse is long overdue.

"The current wooden fire station was built in the mid-1950s," Haskins said. "It's a square building with two bay doors and just enough room for three fire trucks."

The new fire station will be a metal pre-fabricated structure similar to the new town highway garage erected two years ago and built on town-owned land next to the garage on Main Road (Route 143).

In a related article, voters will decide whether to use $35,000 in existing funds -- or "free cash" -- to pay for a new septic system that will serve both the highway garage and proposed new fire station.

Meanwhile, the town meeting will consider an overall proposed town budget of $ 1.7 million for fiscal 2011 starting July 1, which Haskins said is virtually unchanged from the current spending plan.

Nearly half the amount, $823,000 is Peru's assessment to the Central Berkshire Regional School District.

"We
pretty much level funded everything in the budget," said Haskins. "The only things that went up were things we can't control like vocational school tuition and school insurance."
Additional special money articles funded by "free cash" include $10,000 for new two-way radios for police fire and highway personnel, $2,500 for two new bullet-proof vests and a pager for the Police Department and $2,600 toward new fire hose.

Voters will also determine if Peru should enter into an inter-municipal agreement with several other rural Western Massachusetts towns.

The communities want to establish a financial self-sustaining communication system that will feature high-speed Internet access and cable television.

To reach Dick Lindsay: rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com, or (413) 496-6233