---

“When one gets in bed

with government,

one must expect the diseases it spreads.”

Ron Paul, physician, author and former congressman.

The town of Windham recently received the results of a study completed by SMRT of Portland, Maine, titled Municipal Facilities, Space Needs Study and Master Plan. The study was done to assist the town in assessing its current and future needs. It also makes recommendations to correct space needs, renovations to buildings it currently has and even the construction of new buildings. I feel it is an excellent study that is easy to follow and understand. Nothing comes cheap as Windham is lagging on maintenance and repair of existing buildings and combined with the need for additional space for several departments. The cost to do everything this study points out will run into the millions so it will be interesting to see how Windham’s town councilors respond to this study.

The councilors should have met Tuesday, which is too late for me to comment about in this column. This study is an agenda item in that council workshop. It might be a bit early for councilors to digest everything this study recommends but I have heard a couple of councilors talk about floating a bond or bonds as the total amount of money needed would bankrupt our town’s budget or the wallets of its taxpayers. I am sure it will be discussed in much more detail in future council meetings and even the finance committee that often hasn’t been televised.

It comes as no great surprise that the Public Works Department was found to be the most deficient of all of the facilities studied. The conclusion of the study was that Public Works comes up short in every area of the study and the building has exceeded its life and should be replaced. What I really like about this study is that it not only shows problem areas but gives recommendations on how to correct each department’s problems. For example, for Public Works, additional service and equipment bays are estimated to cost around $628,000 while replacing the present facility might cost around $4,412,000. There is also the cost of tearing down the old building, which is estimated around $45,000. There is an Option C that would locate a new Public Works Building along with a new Public Safety Building on the land the town owns beside the Smith Cemetery (near routes 302 and 202).

The next section is about the Public Safety Building on Route 202 in which both the police and fire departments need a lot of additional space. I was not residing in Windham when this building was built but I understand it originally was just for the fire department but I could be wrong. Anyways, I have only been on the second floor once years ago and even then it was easy to tell it was extremely crowded. Four options are given to correct some or all of the problems in the Public Safety Building. Option A creates a new second floor area with a cost estimated to be $189,000. Another option adds an apparatus bay at a cost of $782,000. Option C is to build a new fire station and renovate the old building at a cost of about $3,250,000. Option D is to build a new police station at a cost of $5,400,000 located with a new Public Works building near the rotary on Routes 302 and 202. The study also mentions other fire stations as well.

What this study tells me is what Windham’s leaders haven’t done in the past 20 or 30 years. Future growth was not planned for so our wallets are going to have to make up for that lack of planning even though growth was allowed. Windham is not alone in that endeavor so it will be interesting to see what the town councilors do along with the recommendations of the town manager. Will this be another study that does nothing but collect dust on a shelf as so many others have in the past?

Lane Hiltunen of Windham knows in the future nothing but moths will be flying out of his wallet.