Chester holds last info meeting on emergency services building Bond vote to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5
The Chester Telegraph | Oct 29, 2019 | Comments 6
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A flier put out by the town to encourage voters to pass the bond. Click to see it in a larger format.
The following day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, registered voters in Chester will be able to weigh in on the $4.777 million bond issue needed to do the project.
The estimated cost of constructing the 15,000-square-foot emergency services building on Pleasant Street is $3.991 million with an additional $786,000 for upgrading the town garage to hold the Highway Department alone. The EM building would hold the police, fire and ambulance services. Currently the Police Department is in Town Hall and the fire and ambulance services are in the Town Garage with the Highway Department.
The cost of the projects would add between 6 and 7 cents to the tax rate over the 30 year life of the bond. That represents a tax increase of $60 to $70 per year for a home assessed at $100,000. With Vermont’s income sensitivity for property taxes, that number could be smaller for many individual taxpayers.
Voting on Tuesday will be from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 556 Elm St.
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I am surprised there is not more dialog here I think voters are not comfortable sharing their feelings I’m not sure I am either. This is a tuff call a nice building can do much to reflect positively on a town and make the lives of our Police, Fire and EMS people easier. I’m looking at $110 more a year on my property taxes I wish this came with cuts else where and or some burden taken away buy wealthy donors. As part of the down town master plan discussions we set up a way to donate to the town for specific causes such as the Yosemite Fire house etc. The EMS building would look nice with someone’s name on it and keep slugs like me who are trying to make having with lower property taxes.
The armory building is not owned by the State any longer. It is owned by a private company.
The building design is not LEED certified. I asked Julie to find out from Russell Corp. what the price difference would be since when she inquired initially at my request the answer they gave was that it would add A LOT more to the cost. But what price do we pay for wasting our resources? I have not heard if they gave her a quote on what the price difference would be.
The Armory was not considered due to its location. If a major fire or emergency happened on Main Street responders could not get there and equipment could not respond to all sides of the emergency. There are no other roads that would allow two way response.
It was a federally owned building that was bought by auction in 2014. It remains in private hands. https://www.chestertelegraph.org/2014/06/10/sale-of-armory-in-chester-stirs-some-interest/
Can anybody explain what was wrong with buying the closed armory for. The state for $1?