LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The new estimated cost for the town's proposed combined police and ambulance facility is $5.9 million, which is lower than what the committee expected for the project. 

Police Station Committee Chair Kristen Tool presented the estimate, which includes about $4.7 million in fixed costs and $750,000 in soft costs, to the Select Board on Monday. She said architect Brian Humes of Jacunski Humes Architects based the estimate on the proposed site plan the committee shared at the beginning of last December. 

"Everything in this process has worked out better than I expected it to, to this point," she said. "... It's a long process, it's a big scary number, but it's not going to be the full amount on the taxpayers." 

Tool said the estimate, which plans for a 12-month construction period, is actually lower than what she had expected for the project cost. She said this amount does not include a $1 million earmark for the project from the state and potential grant funding.  

"Originally, Brian had told us that it would be between $6.5 and $7 million, he was expecting," she said. "So for it to come back at $5.9 million already is great."

Regarding grants, Tool said the committee will focus on state funds first. She said she planned to meet with state Sen. Paul Mark continue discussions of the project and the new cost estimates. 

"He knows what kind of money I'm going to be asking him to help us find. And so now we can really start, in earnest, looking for that money," Tool said, noting the project could benefit from American Rescue Plan Act funds, which need to be allocated by the end of next year.

Additionally, Tool noted that the water district voted to waive the $3,000 hookup fee for the building. 

"Little bits coming in here and there, it all makes a difference," she said. "It all speaks to the community support for this project."

The final location for the project is still not public, as the Select Board continues to negotiate with a property owner on a finalized agreement for a parcel. The Baker Hill Road District has given the town $150,000 to purchase land for the building, which still has to be approved by a taxpayer vote. 

Board member Michael Murphy said he feels the town is ahead of the curve compared to other communities looking to expand their police and emergency service buildings. 

"We're striking while the iron is hot, I believe," he said, inviting anyone with questions, comments or concerns to reach out. "We're doing our due diligence, and the effort of you as the chair, your committee members, the community who are in support of this; very very important." 

In other business: 

• Town Accountant Katie Lemanski and Lynne Lemanski provided an update on several issues regarding town finances. Lynne said she expects the town's free cash to take longer to certify, noting that things had been slowed because of turnover in town staff last year.

"We didn't actually get the final numbers until December, so we're kind of crunching now to try to get everything done," she said, noting she expects free cash to be certified sometime in March. "We just wanted to let everybody know because free cash will not be certified probably as soon as it was in the past because we had those holdups." 

Murphy thanked the two for working on fixing finance issues and discussing the topic in a public meeting. 

• Kirt Maryland, of Housatonic Solar LLC, provided the board an update on the town's solar agreement with EDF Renewables, with the board voting to approve it. He said EDF has two years to get permitting and other work done, otherwise the contract terminates. 

"It gives them the right to file for interconnections, start the permitting, go through all that," he said. "They still gotta go through all the local boards and that's where you're going to get a lot of the details worked out." 

In October last year, the board voted to pick EDF to design, permit, install, finance, own, operate and maintain two solar photovoltaic systems in town. The lease amount is $116,000 a year over 25 years. 

• Finance Committee member Stephen Wentworth came before the board to ask to be put on a future agenda to discuss the town budget process for the upcoming year. 

"We've had our tax classification hearing, we have a new town administrator coming, and we have the start of the budget process in the near future," he said. "I have put together a chart that makes a projection on where our average tax will be in a half-dozen years, and I'd like to speak to it." 

Board member Timothy Sorrell asked if it would be better for the Finance Committee to meet with department heads, which Wentworth said they discussed at their last meeting. 

"I fully support that because I think it's the way that it should be done," Sorrell said. 

• The board approved a heavy equipment license for John's Tractor. The town approved all other town licenses at a brief meeting in December. Approval of the license had to be postponed, as board Chair John Goerlach operates the business and board member Timothy Sorrell was not in attendance. Goerlach was not in attendance for this meeting. 

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