One of the articles on the warrant for Southwick’s Special Town Meeting scheduled for Jan. 14 is to ask voters to approve a Community Preservation Committee recommendation to allocate $164,000 to purchase a conservation restriction on a 10.52-acre property that abuts the Southwick Historical Society’s Charles J. Gillett Cigar Factory on College Highway.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SOUTHWICK — With the Special Town Meeting called for Tuesday, Jan. 14, the warrant has come into focus and will include two articles from the Community Preservation Committee for funding projects, one about a citizens’ petition and another for a vote on a funds transfer to pay Fire Department salaries.
One of the two articles originating out of the CPC is a request asking residents to allocate $164,000 from its conservation fund to purchase a conservation restriction of a 10.52-acre property at 74 College Hwy. the Southwick Historical Society wants to purchase to protect it from commercial or residential development.
If approved at Special Town Meeting, the money will also be used to install an informational kiosk on the property. It will also provide the public access to the property from the parking lot of the Gillett Cigar Factory on the society’s property at 86 College Hwy.
The purchase price for the property is $175,000. The society, using its own funds, will make up the difference of $11,000 of the price, plus $21,000 for a property survey, a property management plan, real estate agent fees and closing costs; $20,750 in contingency fees; and $1,000 for preparing the perimeter of the property with mowing and landscaping.
The CPC also finalized the article for the warrant to use $155,000 of its historic funds cover the cost of an architectural and engineering study to determine how much it will cost to repair the brick façade on Town Hall.
“You can see that it’s starting to fall apart,” said former Building and Grounds Director Russ Anderson about the building’s envelop last month.
Anderson has been working on the project since the retirement of former Chief Administrative Officer Karl Steinhart, who started it after pools of water were found inside the historic structure when its roof was replaced in 2023.
The issue with the walls was discovered almost accidentally during the summer of 2023 while the building’s roof was being replaced.
Recognizing it was more than the roof leaking, Stinehart contacted a Charlestown-based engineering firm to check on the condition of the walls, which found that water was leaking through the bricks and supports that surround nearly every window and door in the building.
It also tested water absorption rates on the walls’ bricks and masonry and found the bricks “absorbed water at a very rapid rate.”
The firm also found the mortar joints were “very deep and showing signs of deterioration,” and sealants had failed along the perimeter of windows on the building.
Water leaks were also found at the below-grade walls in the front of the building directly in front of the concrete plaza area, according to the firm’s report.
The repairs have been estimated to be between $1.15 million and $1.25 million.
The citizens’ petition article that will appear on the warrant was submitted by Greg Deily, the chair of the town’s Economic Development Commission, is asking residents to weigh in on a proposal by the EDC to lower speed limits on College Highway by 10 mph.
In September, the EDC voted unanimously to endorse the proposal developed by Deily to lower the speed limits on College Highway, which he said would make the town more “business friendly.”
The EDC proposed lowering the speed limits by 10 mph on College Highway between Tannery Road and Town Hall.
Currently, the speed limit between Tannery Road and Interstate Building Supply is 40 mph. The EDC supported a new speed limit of 30 mph on this stretch of College Highway.
The speed limit is currently 35 mph between Industrial Building Supply and Town Hall, and the EDC proposed making it 25 mph.
The petition is also asking residents to support installing crosswalks at “two or three” places in the town center, which is considered the intersection of Feeding Hills Road and College Highway.
The petition, which got the required 101 signatures of registered voters, includes that if it is adopted, it would still need to be approved by the state Department of Transportation, which maintains the road.
The last of the four articles has been put forth by the town’s Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker and is to pay back wages to employees of the Fire Department after its union and the town agreed to a new contract several months ago that increased their wages.
With the expectation that the contract would be ratified, the town put the estimated back wages into a reserve account in the fiscal 2025 budget, but Special Town Meeting must approve moving the funds from the reserve account to the wage line in the budget.
In year’s past, the town’s union employees whose contracts have been renegotiated for higher pay have had to wait for the Annual Town Meeting in May to receive back wages.
Parker thought it was more appropriate to have the employees paid sooner than wait.
“This is just internal bookkeeping,” Parker said about the article.
The Special Town Meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 14 in the auditorium at Southwick Regional School.
