Peterborough’s Select Board authorized a plan Tuesday night for the town to seek funding from Congress for the fire station and municipal campus project, ahead of the town’s vote on the $2 million bond for designing and engineering the project.
Town Administrator Nicole MacStay said that seeking federal funding for the project was always part of the plan, and that hopefully some funds will be allocated to help offset the $2 million bond.
“If nothing else, this is really going to get this project on their radar,” she said.
The application will be for a congressionally directed spending request, which allows senators to collect requests and send them to the appropriate subcommittee to decide whether to grant the request, MacStay said. She intends to submit the application through U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s office.
“And then we go from there and see if they accept it,” MacStay said.
The project, which is to construct a fire station on land off of Elm Street, hit a complication in mid-March when the town discovered it could not bond for the estimated $23 million cost total cost of the project, as it would surpass the town’s debt limit.
The bond was amended to be $2 million and narrowed in scope to be used only for the preliminary design and engineering of the project. Following this amendment, the town’s bond counsel recommended that the town hold a second public hearing on the topic, allowing for some residents to express their concerns.
Carl Staley said that he was concerned that the project would not move forward following the expenditure of the $2 million.
“Then we would’ve spent $2 million for potentially nothing,” he said. “I think we’re putting the cart before the horse.”
MacStay said the step of designing and engineering would have been part of the original project, and that even if the project did get delayed in the future, she did not think it would not be a waste. She compared it to work done on the Main Street Bridge project, which was halted, delayed and restarted on several occasions.
“Every piece of work along the way moved that project forward,” she said.
A similar concern was raised that the work done over the past year by HKT Architects was wasted, and MacStay said that it would be used as the basis for further work on the project.
Other concerns were raised about whether the scope of the project would change and be scaled down. Resident Sandy Beville said the town and the Fire Department should redefine priorities for the building in order to lower cost.
“I think there needs to be more of an emphasis not on what we can afford, but what the voters will vote for,” she said.
Fire Chief Ed Walker said there were plans in place to re-evaluate what the fire station needs.
“There is a pretty hard reset on this project,” he said.
Selectman Bill Taylor expressed his frustration with townspeople being “hyper-focused” on the initial $23 million price of the project, and pointed out that this is no longer an applicable estimate.
“That was a very, very raw estimate,” he said.
Taylor and other town officials also made a case for the necessity of the project.
“What we’re talking about here is a life-saving service,” he said.
“The town desperately needs this; the department desperately needs this,” said MacStay.
Taylor also expressed concthat not many residents had been part of the process up to this point, and referenced a comment made by Staley that he had not tuned into the project discussion until he saw the $23 million price tag.
“Keep coming to the meetings,” Taylor said. “Keep talking to us.”
The bond issue is on the town warrant, and will be discussed and voted on at the open session of Town Meeting on May 11.