PELHAM — Bill Grinley has built dragsters, roller coasters and a replacement merry-go-round for the royal family in Kuwait.
He designed an extrication system that frees soldiers trapped in armored vehicles.
So, when local officials asked him if he could build a machine that would swiftly load sandbags to protect citizens and their properties in floods, Grinley, 42, said yes.
"We could see his wheels were turning," Town Administrator Tom Gaydos said.
Gaydos and the fire and police chiefs pitched the idea to Grinley more than a year ago. Parts of the town regularly flood, including portions of Windham and Hobbs roads.
Grinley's idea is a mobile machine powered by a diesel generator with lights that could load 500 40-pound bags in an hour. The machine would load enough bags to construct a 50-foot-long wall, 1 foot high by 1 foot deep in an hour. Residents would use the walls to protect vulnerable parts of their homes or garages.
Selectmen like the sandbag machine idea, given the annual floods that Pelham homeowners battle, Gaydos said. But board members want the public to decide whether they want the town to buy the machine. It would cost the town about $55,000.
Gaydos said he and the fire chief will propose the machine as a warrant article at Town Meeting. Gaydos said he wonders if other flood-prone towns might have interest in the machine.
Fire Chief Jim Midgley said a sandbagging machine would protect the public in times of need.
"We know we are going to need this, the only question is when," he said.
When floods strike, many homeowners need sandbags, but the town has limited personnel to provide them, he said. Firefighters are typically busy responding to emergencies and the Highway Department is busy clearing culverts.
"The idea came up that there has to be an easier way of doing this," Gaydos said.
Grinley, owner of Patriot Welding and Fabrication, has experience filling sandbags during his days as an Army private.
It is time-consuming and back breaking, typically taking two people — one to hold open the bag and the other to shovel sand into it — several minutes per bag, he said.
Grinley, a married father of two who grew up in Pelham and Windham, is a member of the Massachusetts Army National Guard. He is now a warrant officer in charge of repairing Humvees, heavy equipment and optic devices.
In 2007, he deployed to Iraq, where he was in charge of Army technicians who outfitted military vehicles with armor to better protect them in battle.
Grinley has devoted a lot of time to the sandbagging machine design. He has drawings and estimates it would take about two months to build and test the device. It would stand about 41/2 feet high and be about 10 feet long, with a hopper that would hold 5 yards of sand.
He is quick to say he did not invent a sandbagging machine. But he customized a design that meets Pelham's needs, making it mobile, powered by the generator, and available at night and in rain.
He credits his skill in fabrication and welding to Yankee ingenuity. He has plied those skills in the private sector and in the Army. Soon he might put them to work for the town.
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