ATHOL – Members of Athol’s Economic Development and Industrial Corporation seem to agree that several dilapidated buildings on Exchange Street need to be razed.
The EDIC, at its meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 14, discussed the Exchange Street Revitalization and Action Plan released earlier this year by Montachusett Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Glen Eaton.
“We’re all very aware of some of the issues of Exchange Street, on both sides,” said corporation member Rebecca Bialecki. “The Maroni building is one, and I really think for our own revitalization of the downtown area that that’s one building that needs to be demolished. We’ve gotten multiple reports that there is nothing there worth saving, so I think that’s a priority. Now that we have a new building going up right adjacent to it, it’s going to make a lot of sense to just take that down and see if that parcel is worth anything to anyone else.”
The Maroni building sits between the Steel Pub and the long-closed Plotkin Furniture building on Exchange Street. Bialecki believes that a structural integrity review looked at if there was value to anything, as far as the repurposing of it, and there was nothing.
“I think we learned from the fire warden that things there can only get worse,” said EDIC Chair Keith McGuirk. “People are going in and out of there all the time.”
Bialecki said a couple of other items she took note of in the MRPC report include the old fire station.
“When they closed the old fire station, it was because it was no longer habitable, and it also coincided with cuts in fire department manpower,” Bialecki said. “Now, we have a growing fire department and the need for more (manpower) because our ambulance service is not keeping up with the current demand.”
Bialecki, who is also a member of the Selectboard, said discussions are underway regarding the need to increase department manpower, adding there seems to be a consensus that a new downtown fire station is needed.
“Because of the way Athol had grown, there’s been significant growth in the uptown region and also significant growth, now, in the downtown area,” she said. “So, we want to make sure that (fire and ambulance) have equal access to all areas of town to reduce the amount of response time.”
Still, members of the EDIC seemed to agree that the old downtown fire station needs to come down and a newer, larger facility constructed – possibly on the parcel currently occupied by the former home of the Athol Daily News, as well as an adjacent parcel once occupied by a gas station.
Bialecki explained that the former fire station on Exchange Street, even were it to be refurbished, is too small to meet the requirements for housing modern fire equipment. Bialecki said it’s her understanding that Governor-elect Maura Healey supports a proposal to earmark state cannabis revenues for municipal public safety buildings.
“It would work like the school building fund,” she said, “where there’s a designated percentage that the state would contribute. So, we really need to be double-ready for when that comes through for our fire station. That would perfect for the kind of public safety kind of building that she wants to fund.”
Corporation members also agreed that another building which needs to be demolished, even though it sits on Main Street, is the former York Theatre, which also once housed Lucky Lanes, a candlepin bowling alley. The consensus seemed to be that razing the York and Maroni buildings would make way for more parking in the downtown area.
Whether any of the buildings in question can be torn down depends on ownership. The York and the former ADN building are both privately owned while ownership of the Maroni building is in question. The town would need to either secure ownership of the buildings or permission from the owners before it could consider demolition. Funding to have them razed would need to be addressed.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.