DALTON 鈥 Now that Dalton voters have told the town they don’t want a public safety facility at the former Dalton High School, a community group is working to find out exactly what residents do want.
The Community Involvement Subcommittee, an ad-hoc group reporting to the town Public Safety Facility Advisory Committee, provided an update on their community engagement strategy on Wednesday. It includes a 12-question survey and an informational flyer that will help determine the town鈥檚 interest in building a new police facility.
鈥淲e鈥檙e at the point of seeing if the town is ready for it,鈥 committee co-Chair Don Davis said.
The town is searching for a site to build a new facility for the Police Department, which is currently in the basement of Town Hall. That station is plagued by plumbing problems, a lack of ventilation and holding cells that don鈥檛 meet state standards.
After Town Meeting rejected plans to build the facility at the former Dalton High School, the committee shifted its efforts to engaging with the community before moving forward with other sites. It formed the outreach group at a meeting on May 15, on a motion made by Davis.
The Community Involvement Subcommittee consists of Public Safety Facility Advisory Committee members Ryan Flanders, Craig Wilbur (the other co-chair) and Davis, and Dalton Police Department Executive Assistant Rebecca Whitaker.
On Wednesday, Davis said the group met four times in the last month to work on the survey questions and informational flyer. The committee did not go into detail about the questions, but did approve them and said they plan to fix one question related to a tax figure.
Wilbur praised the questions. “These are great,” he said.
The committee plans to create a Google Doc link for the questions and post it on the town website. They also discussed distributing the survey by mail via postcards.
A feasibility study produced by Brian Humes, an architect for Jacunski Humes Architects LLC., recommended the old Dalton High School as the best location for a new facility. But voters at the 2017 annual town meeting voted to restrict the redevelopment of that site to housing, in accordance with zoning bylaws.
An effort at the May 5 annual town meeting to rescind that restriction was rejected, formally ruling out that site for the police facility.
Flanders discussed the informational flyer, which will 鈥済ive the who, why, and what we are doing.鈥 The flyer has multiple columns that have information regarding what the committee has done, the next steps in the process, and pictures of the current police station.
The committee is also planning to host eight workshops at different locations and times to accommodate people鈥檚 schedules. They also plan to show a PowerPoint presentation from Humes, which shows what the police station should look like as opposed to the current station.
Whitaker showed examples from the presentation, and Police Chief Deanna Strout said, 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 even imagine what it would be like to work at a place like that.鈥
The committee approved the informational flyer and will look to add dates and times for the workshops at a later date.
At its last meeting on May 27, the committee decided not to replace member Tony Pagliarulo, who previously announced his resignation after being elected to the Select Board.
The committee, which has been working for about a year, has to submit its recommendation to the Select Board by Dec. 30.