WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The chair of the committee that oversees the town's fire district Wednesday called a $400,000 grant to support design of a new fire station a "godsend" that will help the project move forward while easing the impact on taxpayers.

 

"We're just elated," Prudential Committee Chair John Notsley said of news that the district received funding in the first round of Rural and Small Town Development Fund grants from the commonwealth.

 

"It should take care of us for some time as far as the engineering is concerned, without going back to the taxpayers for any money. It's fantastic we were awarded that."

 

The Williamstown Fire District is one of 16 municipal entities across the commonwealth that were awarded grants totaling $3 million to support projects in communities with populations below 7,000 or a population density of fewer than 500 people per square mile.

 

Housing and Economic Development Secretary Michael Kennealy announced the bonds on Tuesday in Montague, where $169,000 will help replace a sewer pump station.

 

"Throughout the commonwealth, we see example after example of how small projects can build momentum for transformative development in communities that plan for growth," Kennealy said. "We are proud to create responsive programming to support municipalities."

 

Williamstown was the only Berkshire County town to receive grants in this round of funding.

 

The Fire District has been working for years toward a plan to replace the aging and cramped station on Water Street with a new facility on a Main Street parcel the district purchased in 2017.

 

The owner's project manager hired by the Prudential Committee, Colliers International, introduced the district to Kerin Shea, a grant writer who wrote the grant application for the R&ST program.

 

"It's an art: what to put in, what not to put in, what gives you points and what doesn't," Notsley said. "Apparently, [Shea] is dynamite.

 

"We've applied for, probably in the last four or five years, 25 grants of various sizes and descriptions, and this is by far the largest. None of us had much hope that we were going to get it, but it came through in the final hours."

 

Notsley recently returned to the role of chair after Richard Reynolds resigned from the five-person Prudential Committee.

 

Notsley said Wednesday evening that he wants in December or January to hold a special election to replace Reynolds and, at the same time, hold a special district meeting to appropriate more funds from free cash toward design work on the station.

 

"Apparently, we only had enough money in the [fiscal year 2022] budget for phase one, $85,000, which we expended in short order," Notsley said. "I believe what's going to happen is we'll need a special district meeting to take money out of free cash.

 

"The $400,000 [awarded from the state on Wednesday] is to reimburse money that you've spent. You have to spend it first and apply for reimbursement. If they just gave it to us, that would eliminate the need for a special meeting."

 

The Fire District is a separate municipal entity apart from town government. Its elected Prudential Committee governs the district, analogous to the function of the Select Board in town government.

 

The Prudential Committee long has talked about the need to find any outside funding sources it can to defray the cost of a new station, a cost which has only grown since the district has talked about replacing the Water Street facility.

 

"This was a $10 million project 13 years ago," Notsley said. "What the engineers are saying right now is $10 million will get you roughly 14,000 square feet, which is nowhere near enough. Since 2008, when we talked about it originally, we've taken on the Forest Warden from the town."

 

The current station is a little more than 4,300 square feet and barely holds the department's trucks with minimal room to move around in the truck bay.

 

Wednesday's grant will allow the district to move forward with work by the architects the Prudential Committee chose to develop plans for a new station, Pittsfield's EDM and Mitchell Associates Architects of Voorheesville, N.Y.

 

"This is a huge savings for the taxpayers of the town, and with this grant, we hope to advance the design phase of the project so we can be shovel ready if other funding sources become available," District Treasurer Corydon Thurston said.