Another town-owned building is showing its age—the Harvard Fire Station.
Architectural firm Kaestle Boos Associates summarized the station’s shortcomings in a feasibility study presented to the Select Board at its Jan. 7 meeting. It concluded that the best option to bring the station up to current standards is to build a new one at a different location. It also included an “opinion of probable cost” for a new station, $17.8 million. That figure assumes construction would begin next year and does not include any property acquisition costs.
The study found that the 1976 building located on the hill above Town Hall does not meet current codes, including electrical, plumbing, and handicapped accessibility. In addition, it does not meet current seismic codes and it has no sprinklers. The apparatus bay was found to be unsafe, with exhaust being drawn into occupied areas and an insufficient detection system for unsafe levels of the gasses in that exhaust.
Space was one of the major shortcomings cited in the study, which said “many of the operations and workspaces are extremely cramped by insufficient space.” The firm concluded that a 23,500- square-foot facility would be required to meet the department’s expressed needs, and it analyzed the possibility of renovating and expanding the existing 6,000-square-foot station. But the architects eliminated that option in their study, stating that the current building lot (1.6 acres) is too small to meet the need for additional space.
Instead, Kaestle Boos recommended building a new station in a new location. Fire Chief Rick Sicard told the board he chose two available properties near the center of town for the firm to investigate. One was the 1.9-acre Bromfield House lot at the juncture of Mass. Ave. and Bolton Road, since the building will be vacated when school administration staff moves into the new elementary school. The other was a privately owned 4.3-acre lot at 35 Ayer Road, across from Hillside Garage. The firm provided diagrams showing how a one- or two-story station would fit on either lot.
The Select Board praised Kaestle Boos for the quality and thoroughness of its study, but it lamented the lack of opportunity for input from town boards when assumptions were made early in the feasibility study process. It plans to take a closer look at the details of the report and discuss it with other town boards in the near future. The fire station is not currently on the town’s five-year capital projects list.
