Municipal leaders and public‑safety groups press for state building authority to fund town and fire facilities

Municipal officials, fire chiefs and municipal associations told the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security that cities and towns across the Commonwealth face large, unmet needs to replace and upgrade municipal and public‑safety buildings.

Representatives from Amherst and Montague described century‑old public‑works buildings and undersized fire and EMS stations. "Our DPW staff are an important part of our first responders," Lynn Grissner, president of the Amherst Town Council, told the committee, describing a DPW facility that occupies a retrofitted trolley barn built about 1915. Montague's assistant town administrator, Chris Nolan Zeller, described projected five‑year capital needs for several municipal buildings that exceed local budgets and said smaller towns lack capacity to take on major projects.

The Fire Chief…