With Permission
Proposed Fire HQ
The Fire Commission approved a revised plan to build a long-awaited new $12.5 million headquarters last night. Built 47 years ago, the current building has so many violations against it that it is operating outside the law, Fire Chief Jack Ahern has said.
First Selectman Unk DaRos said the next step is to present the financial package to the Board of Finance this Monday. He had hoped the project would come in at $10 million. The price is higher because of energy-saving designs, he said after the meeting, which was held at the Canoe Brook Senior Center.
“We pay a little bit more now but we will be saving it in the long run,” he told the Eagle in an interview.
Both DaRos and Janice Plaziak, the town’s engineer, appeared before the commission, which voted unanimously to adopt the project. The Representative Town Meeting (RTM) in 2008 approved plans for the design of the building, which will be located at its current site – 45 North Main St. – once the adjacent public works building is moved. If the Board of Finance approves the fire headquarters financial proposal it will then go to the RTM.
The Board of Selectmen agreed to hire a management company for the pre-construction phase of the project in March.
The building, constructed in 1963, is the oldest municipal building in town never to have undergone a major renovation or expansion. When the EMS ambulance services became part of the Fire Department’s operation in 1993, and the building’s function expanded exponentially, nothing was done. In 1963, there were 400 responses. As of yesterday there were 3,039 calls, including all ambulance calls. Branford’s population is nearing 30,000 residents.
There is mold in the current building. There are termites. As for space, there is none for volunteer firemen, for a female firefighter (the first full-time female firefighter was recently hired) or just to hold a meeting.
The new fire headquarters plan is dependent upon moving public works to another site. DaRos said he is currently in negotiations to lease a facility on Route 139. “We will have final negotiations on that by Monday,” he said.
“We will be leasing some property up there with a couple of options,” he told the Eagle. He said the fees to lease the facility will be about $600,000 for either three or four years.
The new fire headquarters will rise on the public works building site. When the new firehouse facility is complete, the current headquarters would be torn down and the space would be used for parking.
The town applied for federal stimulus funding last year but did not get it. “The town has applied again,” DaRos said.
Eventually a new public works building will be constructed, perhaps on the Tabor land site, which the town owns.
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