Towns take initial steps toward combined police station

By Jonathan Cook
Turley Publications Reporter

WARREN – After many years of sharing a middle/high school, Warren and West Brookfield may now be on the way to sharing a police station.
At their regular meeting March 31, the Board of Selectmen, minus Chairman David Delanski who was out with the flu, hosted their West Brookfield counterparts for a meeting on the possibility of sharing a police station, possibly along Route 67 near the town border.
The conversation opened up with the ongoing effort to purchase an emergency generator for the school building the towns already share and intend to use as an emergency shelter. West Brookfield’s Chief Thomas O’Donnell suggested that funding be sought from the Regional Homeland Security Council.
That bit of business completed, the discussion moved to the possibility of sharing a police station – a project that Warren Selectman Bob Souza has said may be a first of its kind in the state.
As such, West Brookfield Selectman David Eisenthal said he thinks the project may require special legislation.
While other communities, such as Wales, Holland and Brimfield, have moved toward combining police departments, that is not the intent of this project. That much was made clear by every board member present. As West Brookfield Chairman Barry Nadon, Jr. put it, “we’re looking for a shared building, not a regionalized police force.”
Warren Police Chief Bruce Spiewakowski said “our biggest concern, and Chief O’Donnell and I have spoken, is that of location. I know that for a police department to be effective, it must be centrally located.” If the Warren PD were to operate out of a building near the West Brookfield line, Spiewakowski said, the location wouldn’t meet that criteria.
Souza responded. “I understand the chief’s point,” he said, “but for me that’s not as big of a concern because I do feel that up on the area of Route 67, that’s sort of centralized for both of our communities.”
As for O’Donnell, he is ready for anything. “We’ve been living in 765 square feet for so long that I’d be looking for a Quonset hut on a corner lot somewhere at this point.”
All kidding aside, O’Donnell said most of his questions about matters such as the size of the building that would be needed couldn’t be answered until the project entered a design stage.
It’s nowhere near that point yet. “Rather than poke a stick at it any longer,” said West Brookfield Selectman Tom Long, “I think we really need to start looking at a time table.”
The boards agreed that they would work towards meeting three objectives for a Special Town Meeting in the fall. Nadon summed them up this way: knowing the cost of the land, having rough building estimates, and a coming to a regional agreement to get the job done.
The boards have asked the two chiefs to discuss their building requirements in the next few weeks. They also agreed to meet with various property owners before convening another joint session April 21 in West Brookfield to continue discussions including the make-up of a building committee to devote full attention to the project.