WILBRAHAM — Wilbraham is taking action to secure the property at 176 Cottage Ave. that the Select Board says presents a safety issue. The town has been in contact with the owner’s lawyer, without the issues being addressed.
“We’ve made our dissatisfaction and disappointment known … and our concern more importantly about public safety,” Town Administrator Nick Breault said at the Dec. 17 Select Board meeting. “We wanted to give every opportunity for the property owner to address this and they haven’t.”
The town has contracted Charlie Arment Trucking to install a fence around the property, which is the site of an empty commercial propane tank and what Breault described as a small “decrepit” building, two features the town may take action to remove in the future. He said the aim is to make the property safe as possible as “the elements are taking their toll.”
The installation will cost the town $3,000, with a monthly fee of $500. Breault said Wilbraham will recoup the money through a lien on the property.
Emergency Dispatch Director Anthony Gentile asked the Select Board to approve a $45,723 reserve fund transfer to cover the cost of replacing communication tower equipment.
Gentile said that a few days prior to the meeting, the microwave link went down between the tower on Ridge Road and one on Hovey Hill in Monson. There are about nine links throughout the town and that area of the network covers the east side of Wilbraham. It was discovered that an outdoor power unit needed repair or replacement.
Gentile said the units are 10 years old and out of warranty. The other links have been repaired in the last few years, but the Hovey Hill link is original. The last time a power unit needed repair, Gentile said, it took “several months,” as the equipment had to be sent to Canada for service and be shipped back.
Goosetown, the telecommunications company that provides the town’s radio equipment, quoted a repair at about $35,000, while a replacement unit would cost $45,723 and come with a three-year warranty.
Gentile said he will seek state grant funding to cover the replacement of the other links in fiscal year 2026. When asked by Select Board member Marc Ducey, Gentile said it is too late in the current grant cycle to apply to reimburse the cost of the Hovey Hill link. In Gentile’s opinion, waiting to replace the link until the new grant cycle begins in June would be “too long” for the east side of town to have “minimal radio coverage for both police and fire.”
Select Board member Michael Squindo asked how long the units are expected to last. Gentile told him the current units have a life expectancy of 10 years. The new one that would replace the existing equipment would last at least that long. The existing equipment was purchased in 2023 and installed in 2017, exceeding the three-year warranty even then.
The board also rescinded some orders and reallocated the town’s remaining amount of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. Breault explained that a misunderstanding about how Town Accountant Derek Geser was tracking ARPA allocations led to a discrepancy.
The board returned to the ARPA Appropriation Account: $202,900 for broadband provider services, $124,013 for broadband open access partner ISP, $15,706 for the ambulance project and $10,624 for network switches, which allows for internet access in town buildings. They then reallocated $319,136 to cover the remainder of a fire truck purchase and $22,500 to pay the balance on rifles for the police department. About $19,700 was left over to appropriate for the DPW’s paving work. These changes ensured every dollar of ARPA funding was allocated by the Dec. 31 deadline and the town did not leave any leaving money on the table.
