BCAT News

After a change made at the Select Board Meeting Monday night, new vehicles acquired for the Department of Public Works will be painted black and will feature a more striking version of the town seal. That’s to cut down on the lead time to acquire new vehicles and the cost of custom paint jobs for vehicles as had been done previously: According to DPW Director Brian White, the custom yellow or green paint can cost between $1000 and $2,500. 

“We’re going to look at rerouting these possible savings into providing additional maintenance on the vehicles so we can provide additional life on them,” White said Monday. 

Existing DPW vehicles will be grandfathered in and won’t be repainted; only new vehicles will have the new black color scheme. 

The department also made some changes to its division names in order to be more in line with what other downs are doing, White said. 

“Central Maintenance,” the DPW division that maintains the department’s cars, will be renamed to “Fleet Maintenance.” 

“I don’t think a lot of people associate it with the maintenance of vehicles. Fleet maintenance is a common direction that a lot of towns are taking, and it would help the public envision more clearly what the division does,” White said. 

Additionally, the “Buildings and Cemeteries Division” will now be called “Cemeteries and Facilities.” White said that’s to avoid confusing the DPW’s buildings division, which manages town properties, from the entirely separate Building Department, which is responsible for inspecting and permitting buildings. He said the DPW gets a lot of calls from people looking for the Building Department, and he hopes the change will alleviate some of the confusion.