It has been nearly four years since a feasibility study determined that the town’s 47-year-old fire station is cramped, unsafe, and does not meet current codes. Its estimate for the probable cost of a new station fell just short of $18 million. For a few years, that number was frightening enough to keep town officials from discussing the project.
The town is finally taking its first steps toward addressing the aging station, but the Permanent Building Committee, which is in charge of facilitating the town’s building projects, has no idea what its role is in this complex project and will seek the advice of the Select Board at the board’s Oct. 17 meeting.
One contributor to the complexity of the project is land—the parcel where the current station is located (on the hill behind Town Hall) is only 1.6 acres, too small for the needs of a new station, according to the architecture firm Kaestle Boos study done in 2020. Some land could be taken from the Hildreth House parcel, which the town also owns, but Fire Chief Rick Sicard described that land as “a big rock.” Kaestle Boos’ estimate to make that land suitable for building, calculated before the pandemic, was about $1.6 million. Construction prices have risen since then.
In addition, Sicard and Will Stevenson, acting co-director of the Ambulance Service, presented a case for the town to merge their two departments at a Select Board meeting earlier this year. Part of that merger would involve a new building, with living quarters, to serve both departments. Both Sicard and Stevenson told the board it would be foolish to build a new fire station with no living quarters and expect it to last 50 years.
While no decisions have been made about moving the station to a new site or merging the fire and ambulance departments, last June the Select Board directed town administration to put out a request for proposals for land that would meet the needs of a new fire station. Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro told members of the Permanent Building Committee that, without funding in hand, the town could not put out an RFP. But she did write an informal letter describing the criteria needed for a new station, and that letter went to two local realtors. Responses were due back in August; one was received, expressing that the property across from Hillside Garage was available and met the criteria in the letter.
Sobalvarro also enlisted the help of Open Space Committee Chair Peter Dorward to identify parcels that might fit the criteria for a new fire station, including an ideal minimum lot size of 4½ acres. She presented the results of Dorward’s work to the building committee at its Sept. 29 meeting, and members wanted to know what the next steps were and what their committee’s involvement should be. Sobalvarro didn’t know, but she told them land purchases must follow the state’s procurement process, which includes having funds available before asking for real proposals from landowners. The committee currently has no chair since Cindy Russo resigned last month, but member Pablo Carbonell asked Sobalvarro to add an agenda item for the Select Board’s next meeting asking for guidance with this project.
Chief Sicard attended the Permanent Building Committee’s meeting, and he expressed his frustration with trying to move this project forward. He said he tried to put in a capital request for fiscal 2025 to purchase land for a new station. But, he said, Town Administrator Tim Bragan would not allow him to do so, saying the request had to come from the Permanent Building Committee. The capital committee’s deadline for fiscal 2025 requests was Sept. 1.
Sicard said, “It seems like every meeting there’s more and more questions on what are the next steps, and I think it keeps delaying things.” Carbonell agreed, saying “Let’s kick it to [the Select Board] so they can kick it to us and finally get moving on it.” A request for funding the final design of a new fire station is on the Capital Planning and Investment schedule for fiscal 2026, and a request for construction funds is on the schedule for fiscal 2028.
