BUCKFIELD — After delays caused by heavy snowstorms, unseasonable rains and frigid temperatures, the Buckfield Board of Selectmen announced recently that construction on the town's new Highway Department Building is finally nearing completion.
It was originally hoped that the new 50-foot by 60-foot steel building, located on John Ellingwood Road, would be operational by Christmas. Now, according to Selectman Joanne Bly, the building should be ready for the Highway Department to move into "by the end of February."
In fact, work has progressed to such a point that selectmen, mindful of the smallest details on the project, debated at a recent meeting how the sign for the building should read.
"Town Garage" was the time-honored choice. However, as Selectman Oscar Gammon pointed out, it might be time to break with tradition. Some passers-by, he said, might "stop in and expect you to change a tire."
Town Manager Cindy Dunn concurred, stating that the now-closed Buckfield Garage on Route 117 had often reported receiving inquiries for town service.
Chairman Lawrence "Skip" Stanley suggested calling the building the "Public Works Building." However, Gammon was quick to retort, "We only do highway stuff, not water or whatever." Stanley later made a motion, unanimously adopted, that the new building will be labeled as the "Buckfield Highway Department." A sign should arrive soon that will match the tan and green color scheme of the new building.
Although the road crew will begin moving in equipment as soon as possible, Dunn believes it will be "sometime this spring" when the town will hold a grand opening and open house to celebrate at the new building.
"It's huge, compared to what we had," said highway department employee Phil Savage, referring to the new garage. He estimated the size of the current town garage at 30-feet by 40-feet.
Recognizing the need to replace the old concrete building that currently serves as the town garage, the citizens of Buckfield began setting aside money in a reserve fund in 1999.
The old building, long since outgrown and filled to overflowing with equipment, had developed cracks in walls and leaks in the ceiling.
"The other building was getting old," said Savage. "There was water all over the place. We had to unhook all the juice out of the bathroom because the bathroom had so much water running down through the light socket and everything."
"Our old garage was not economically sound by way of heat," Dunn added.
Dunn reported that she and the selectmen first "got serious" about replacing the current garage in May 2001.
In November of that year an informational meeting was held at which preliminary plans were unveiled for the new town garage, a new fire station, and a walking path to wind around that complex and the municipal building.
Deemed too costly by taxpayers, the walking path was abandoned and the fire station delayed.
"I think the path is dead," Dunn confirmed.
Citizens are currently setting aside money in a new reserve fund, first established in 2000, for a future fire station project.
"The fire station is on the back burner," said Dunn. "It is something that this town is definitely going to need to look into. However, more long-term than short-term. We are going to ask voters to continue to deposit to the fire station reserve."
With the sole focus then being the town garage, selectmen enlisted the aid of an architect to draw up plans. However, voters rejected that plan when the estimate came in at $335,000. Municipal officers then re-examined the project, this time without the architect. Once the estimated cost was brought down to $200,000 voters approved the project at the annual town meeting in June 2003.
Still, there was some controversy, according to Savage.
"Everyone thought the other building was fine," he said with a shrug before concluding, "Small town."
At that 2003 town meeting, voters set a budget for the project that included $40,500 from the reserve fund previously established and $65,000 from the town's general fund. Voters also approved borrowing $94,500 to complete funding of the project.
"We intentionally reduced our summer roads projects so that people wouldn't see an increase in taxes," said Dunn.
Dunn also commended the town's employees in the Highway Department, including Savage and Phil McAlister.
"The highway crew has been outstanding!" she exclaimed. "They've done everything they can with the town's equipment that they possibly can do to save these costs."
Savage was more humble, attributing most of the savings to vagaries of the weather. He reported work weeks of 86 and 82 hours, respectively, during the heavy snowstorms of early December. However, the bitter cold of January meant no snow, and more time to devote to the building project.
"Really saved tax dollars," he said. "[Taxpayers] ain't had to pay no overtime."
Savage did list some of the work the highway department has done themselves, thus saving the town the cost of bidding various tasks out to contract.
"We put the [exhaust] fan in ourselves," he said. "We run all the pipes around ourselves so we didn't have to hire people. We did all the landscaping."
And although the building's foundation was laid by by Thomas Barker Construction of Leeds, "We dug the hole and backfilled it, did all that stuff ourselves," said Savage.
"We built the [salt] shed and put in the calcium tank," Savage concluded, referring to the town's new liquid calcium road treatment that is now being used for the second year. Last year, the treatment was only used on state roads through Buckfield. However, voters have recently voted to expand its use.
Tanks have been installed on all of the plow trucks which spray the liquid calcium onto the road salt, said Savage.
"Salt's only good to 24 degrees, anything below 24 degrees, the salt stops working. This makes the salt work to 30 below zero," he said.
"The salt shed and liquid calcium depot came from the winter budget," said Dunn, making clear that the is was not included in the $200,000 budget for the new town garage. However, additional savings in money and time were had as the actual work was incorporated into the new town garage project.
This also now puts all of Buckfield's highway department facilities on one site, with the exception of sand.
"We have our own screening plant and everything," said Savage, referring to the gravel pit in North Buckfield. "We screen our own sand."
Due to space limitations in the current town garage, much of the town's fleet was scattered in various locations. This inventory includes three plow truck/sanders, one grader, two bucket loaders, a backhoe, a wheeler (described as a dump truck without a plow mechanism), plus a one-ton pickup and a 4x4.
Within the fenced in grounds of the new town garage is an older building soon to be vacated by C. F. Well.
Use of that building will allow highway workers to store off-season equipment on the same property, leaving room in the new building for a safe working environment when conducting maintenance on the in-season vehicles.
The new facility has also been given room to grow, something that would not have been possible with the old garage, even if its use had been continued.
"When we planned the site — laid the site out, if you will — we knew we wanted a 50-by-60 building at this point in time," said Dunn. "However, we wanted to plan ahead, so that if and when the day ever came that Buckfield ever needed to add on another two trucks or whatever, of course we would need another bay, so we intentionally reserved another 25 feet on the east side of the building."
With the new town garage project approved in June, the town solicited bids and hired Eric Grondhl of Professional Design Engineering, Inc.
"State law dictates that an municipal project over $100,000 must have an engineer [to] sign and stamp and seal the plans," said Dunn.
"We did not receive any local bidders," Dunn said, even though selectmen would have preferred to keep as much of the work as local as possible. Dunn explained the lack of local bids as being due to the fact that, "It's been a very busy year for contractors."
Essex Structural Steel Co. of New York won the bid for constructing the building to be used while Midstate Steel Erectors of Reedfield put it together on site.
After the foundation was begin in October, other contractors hired to the project began work. These included: EA Burns Fencing of Westbrook, who installed the compound's security fence, PDQ Door Co. of Bath, who installed the overhead bay doors, and Murray Oil Co., who installed the furnace and heating systems.
Brad Barker of Leeds was hired to complete the interior carpentry. Moelco Electrical of Jay and Pete the Plumber from Turner were hired to complete work in their respective fields.
Regarding the budget, Dunn believes the town may exceed the $200,000 allowed, despite the best efforts of Savage and McAlister to keep costs down.
"We haven't spent all of the money as yet. I think we are going to run a little short," she said, before continuing, "I won't know that for sure until spring, when I can get a paving contractor up there to see how much it is going to be to pave the site."
With costs expected to exceed the budget, some additional work has been postponed. A new workbench for the garage was estimated at $1,250. Warrants for this and other additional costs are expected to be included on the agenda for Buckfield's next annual town meeting in June 2004.
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