Yarmouth Voters to Decide on $16.5M DPW Facility

YARMOUTH – Special town meeting voters in Yarmouth will be asked next week to fund a new Department of Public Works facility.

A bid for the final design came in at nearly $16.5 million, which was below estimates of $18 million. Article 2 on the warrant will be amended on the floor to reflect the real cost.

The 38,000-square-foot facility would include workshop and storage space, vehicles and equipment maintenance area and office space.

DPW Director Jeff Colby said the new building would replace four other structures at the current site at 507 Buck Island Road and that an upgrade of the current facility is needed.

“There are some safety issues relative to fire suppression and vehicle exhaust systems,” Colby said.

“The buildings are quite old and date back to the 40s and 50s, and the newest building on the site is 1972.”

Colby said the age of the buildings results in energy inefficiencies as well.

The new facility would also consolidate DPW divisions within the site that are at four other locations around town.

“There are some efficiencies associated with the just the operations as well,” Colby said.

A new building was considered about 12 years ago, but the economy was not as strong and the proposal did not receive support from the board of selectmen or town administration and never moved forward to town meeting.

“This is the first time construction funds are coming forward for a new DPW building,” Colby said.

The funding article would require passage at special town meeting Tuesday, October 29 and the ballot box November 5.

The contract is ready to be awarded if approved by voters.

“The contractor is ready and available to start immediately since the plans are finalized and the bids are in hand,” Colby said.

The project would take about 15 months to complete.

If the new DPW facility is not approved by voters, Colby said it would be back to the drawing board for the town and the DPW Building Committee.

The committee has been working on the project for about a year.

“We would meet with the DPW Building Committee to see what our next steps might be,” Colby said.

Colby said residents should expect the project to get more and more expensive the longer it is put off.

“Typically projects don’t go down in cost,” he said.

A consultant has informed DPW officials and the building committee that construction costs are in a pattern of increasing by about 3 to 5 percent each year.

“We have a very good bid in hand and I would hate not to take advantage of that,” Colby said.