Fire Station Roof

At last night's Select Board Meeting, Paul Branscombe told the Select Board that the Fire Station roof is in very bad shape and will need to be replaced at a cost possibly of over $50,000. A core sample of the roof was taken in the process of getting an estimate, and the sample was completely water-logged. The roof is sagging, and there is a danger that it could collapse and damage the fire fighting equipment. Mr. Branscombe said that a structural engineer should be called in to evaluate the problem. The Select Board had approved a warrant article for the repair of the roof to go before the voters this March, but that article was based on an estimate made before the core sample was taken.

If we had a capital improvement plan in place and had put away capital reserves to deal with the roof, we would now be able to draw on those funds to repair the roof. The town has known about the roof for some time, just as the town has known about other long term capital needs. By the town I am not only referring to the Select Board and the Utility Commissioners, I am referring to the voters as well. We have put off many capital improvements, and now we are facing more situations like the Fire Station roof in a time when we are in a recession and cannot afford to pay higher taxes. To paraphrase Dan Golden, we had a choice to pay a little more in the past, but now we are going to be paying a lot in the present and a lot more in the future.

We cannot wait until the election to fix the roof, and we cannot wait until the election to begin developing a long term capital improvement plan. As I have written before, it will take years before we can get the town on a firm financial footing. We need to spend millions to buy equipment, repair roads, and repair buildings. This year if the town passes all of the warrant articles, we will be putting away $150,000 for roads. We need to consider cutting existing budgets, especially those that are higher than those in similar towns, and placing more of our tax dollars in capital reserve.