Spring Grove Cemetery will not be the final home for the town's Parks & Grounds division.
Selectmen rejected a proposal by Plant & Facilities Director Joe Piantedosi on Monday to build an 1,800 square-foot garage and storage area within the cemetery at the intersection of Abbot Street and Spring Grove Road.
The building proposal would have also allowed for the consolidation of the parks & grounds and cemetery divisions, Piantedosi said, saving the town tens of thousands of dollars in employee and equipment costs in future years.
"I think it's certainly in the spirit of what we need to do in the light of the budget situation," Selectman Alex Vispoli said, referring to the proposed consolidation of the two Plant & Facilities divisions. "The concern I have is the location."
Before taking a vote, selectmen voiced their agreement with the Spring Grove Cemetery Trustees and residential abutters, who felt more public works facilities within the cemetery were not appropriate. A similar proposal by Piantedosi to add a building in the cemetery was also defeated, after neighbors raised objections.
Three structures exist at Spring Grove currently and all used by the cemetery division. The third, what Piantedosi called a "small garage," was built for temporary use by the fire department during construction of the Public Safety Center.
"The cemetery is really not the place for a default location," said Paul Caselle, chairman of the Spring Grove Cemetery Trustees. "It just seems like we're becoming the default location because we've got no other place to put it."
Michael Roberts, a resident of 26 Spring Grove Road, told selectmen that the building proposal would create more noise in the cemetery and destroy a natural buffer from surrounding roads and properties.
"I strongly urge you to look beyond the easy fix," Roberts said. "It's a taking of property for uses that have nothing to do with the cemetery."
The town's six parks & grounds employees have been working out of the cemetery for over a year, after their former facility at the Lewis Street town yard was deemed "structurally dangerous" and razed, Piantedosi said.
The construction of a new building for the division within the town yard was put on hold after Town Meeting last year, where planning officials proposed that a task force examine the possibility of moving the town yard to a different site to allow for the area to be developed.
"We got thrown out of the town yard," Piantedosi said. "Now we got thrown out of the cemetery. There is no solution. It's very frustrating."
Both selectmen and Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski said a new location for the parks & grounds division is needed.
"Within a year or two, he's got to have a site," Stapczynski said, referring to Piantedosi.
"Joe does need this," Selectman Ted Teichert said. "It has to be done now rather than later."
Several years ago Piantedosi sought to bring the parks & grounds and forestry divisions into the cemetery. Without the proposed consolidation of the forestry division this time around, however, Piantedosi said his latest building proposal would have been a third smaller than the previous failed plan.
"What I'm proposing to build is substantially smaller than what I proposed way back then," Piantedosi said before selectmen took their vote. "(The forestry division) has very heavy, large trucks, so the space requirements were substantially larger."
Piantedosi said the new building would have allowed for indoor storage of all vehicles and equipment.
Consolidation of the parks & grounds and cemetery divisions would have allowed for the elimination of an equipment operator position, which Piantedosi said would account for more than $60,000 in savings annually in salary and benefits.
Other savings with equipment and utilities could also have been realized, he said.
"There's a whole long list of how we'd be able to save money by doing this," said Piantedosi. "It's something that makes a lot of sense and the impact to the abutters is really minimal."
Article 49 at this year's Town Meeting will seek to consolidate several past appropriations for building a new parks & grounds facility. Upon approval, a total of $516,691 would be available to build a new facility for the division. That sum would include the $240,000 appropriated last year for a proposal at the Lewis Street town yard.
"The previously appropriated money was for building a new parks building," Piantedosi said. "In order for us to build a new parks building somewhere else, we need this article approved to give us more options."
Selectmen voted 3-1 in favor of recommending approval of Article 49, with the condition that the parks & grounds building would not be placed within the cemetery. Any future site must be approved by selectmen.
"We need to be able to take action in the next year somewhere," Selectman Brian Major said. "When we do discuss a site, it has to be a very public process."
Vispoli said he considered the board's vote to be a "50- to 100-year decision."
"I think the pressure's more on the town for the longterm," he said.
