Voters approve $6.9M safety building
Biliouris wins selectman’s seat
ASHBY » After over a decade of attempts to generate enough public support for long-term financing to replace the former modular classroom used by the Police Department as its station, voters approved a Proposition 2K debt exclusion Tuesday to build a new public safety building.
In addition, residents also chose Cathy Biliouris to fill out the rest of the term — through April 2022 — of former Selectman Scott Sweeney. She defeated former Selectman Paul Lasorsa by getting 65% of the 1,004 votes casts.
“I want to thank everyone for their support,” Biliouris said Wednesday, just 10 minutes after she was sworn by the town clerk.
She also thanked Lasorsa for a “clean race.”
“We spoke at the poll yesterday with both of us acknowledging it was a clean race,” she said, adding that Lasorsa also emailed her Tuesday night to congratulate her on the win.
Biliouris, who also is a member of the Public Safety Building Committee, also spoke about the building project now that residents have approved the debt exclusion that will provide $6.9
million for the new facility.
It was approved with 57% of the 1,054 votes cast and essentially will raise taxes over the 40-year life of the $6.9 million loan to about $196 annually on an average home with a property value of $267.000.
Biliouris said the PSBC was meeting Wednesday night to go over final details of the project, on which the town has already spent $590,000 to prepare an architectural building design and bid documents.
According to Biliouris, about 90% of the bid documents are complete and she expected the balance to be approved at the PSBC meeting Wednesday.
The bid process is expected to take between eight and 10 weeks with a tentative construction start in the spring of this year.
Police Chief Fred Alden said on Wednesday he was optimistic about Tuesday’s vote and happy when he learned he and his six fulltime officers can now see themselves in a new building.
“We’re looking forward to moving into a building suited for a police mission,” Alden said, adding that when he was in kindergarten, it was in the mobile classroom that department uses now as its station.
The new building will be attached to the existing fire station on Main Street and combined will be about 15,000 square-feet with the Police Department using about 5,000-square-feet of the new space, which will include a booking area, two holding cells and a sallyport to move prisoners in and out of the facility.