Funding At Issue—

Public Safety Panel Supportive Of Firehouse Project

By Andrew Gorosko

Fire officials are seeking town financial help toward building a new firehouse for the Newtown Hook & Ladder Company, No. 1, a nonprofit volunteer firefighting group that currently operates out of a deteriorated town-owned red-brick firehouse at 45 Main Street, behind Edmond Town Hall.

Board of Fire Commissioners Chairman Kevin Cragin and Rob Manna, who is a member of Hook & Ladder’s Building Committee, attended a March 10 session of the four-member Public Safety Subcommittee of the Legislative Council to stress the importance of the fire company getting new quarters to replace a building which has been deemed structurally unsound and inadequate to house the heavy modern fire trucks that the fire company uses.

Public Safety Subcommittee members appeared responsive to fire officials’ pleadings that new facilities be partially funded by the town, but asked that fire officials be flexible in their approach to the town paying toward such a building.

Mr Manna brought a set of technical drawings to the session ostensibly depicting a firehouse that the fire company has in mind for a site at 12 Sugar Street (Route 302).

He, however, declined to reveal those drawings, saying that fire company members had yet to endorse the plans. At the end of the session, Mr Manna declined to confirm whether the 12 Sugar Street site is the location where the fire company wants to build the structure.

Last August, the Borough Zoning Board of Appeals (BZBA) unanimously rejected Hook & Ladder’s request for a zoning variance for a firehouse project at 12 Sugar Street. That action came amid stiff neighborhood opposition to granting a zoning variance to allow the fire company to build a firehouse closer to the street than the zoning regulations would normally allow.

A new construction proposal for the site reportedly would position a firehouse much farther back from the street.

The site is on the north side of Sugar Street, northwest of Sugar Street’s intersection with Elm Drive. The Borough of Newtown Land Trust, Inc, and the R. Scudder Smith Family Partnership would donate land to create an approximately 9.4-acre site for the firehouse. The property has extensive wetlands.

Mr Cragin told Public Safety Subcommittee members that the existing Hook & Ladder firehouse has been in a state of disrepair for the past 25 years. Many attempts since 1984 to obtain new fire quarters have been stymied, he said.

The town has five volunteer five companies — Hook & Ladder, Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, Sandy Hook, and Botsford. Each of the four other fire companies owns its firehouse, while Hook & Ladder operates out of a town-owned building. The Board of Fire Commissioners is an umbrella organization overseeing the five fire companies. The board has a member from each fire company.

Mr Cragin repeatedly stressed that the firehouse is a town-owned building which is not a structurally safe building. Extensive internal and external shoring has been done at the structure to keep it intact.

Mr Cragin said First Selectman Pat Llodra has toured the firehouse to learn about existing conditions.

Committee member Mary Ann Jacob said there is no issue about the poor condition of the existing firehouse. It is a financial issue that is facing the town, she said.

Hook & Ladder President Rick Camejo pointed out that in May 2009, fire company members noticed that cracks in the firehouse floor were worsening, after which an engineering report recommended that certain repairs be made to the structure. Those repairs, however, were never implemented by the town, he said.

Mr Camejo noted that suitably repairing the existing building would be more expensive than constructing a new firehouse.

Money Sought

Mr Manna asked that the town provide $1.5 million the toward the cost of a $2.6 million firehouse. Mr Manna added that through the use of “value engineering” the fire company is seeking to hold the cost of a project down to $2.2 million or $2.3 million.

The Hook & Ladder organization would raise about $750,000 toward the project, he said. A new firehouse would house six fire trucks.

The fire company had sought a federal “stimulus” grant for the project, but that money did not materialize, he said.

Mr Manna said that the fire company expects to submit within 30 days a wetlands protection application for the property. The application would be submitted to the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC), he said. The fire company is seeking to tailor the project to avoid the need to also seek wetlands approval from the US Army Corps of Engineers, he said.

The fire company’s eventual goal is own both its firehouse and the land on which it is constructed, similar to the four other local volunteer fire companies, he said.

Mr Manna said that without getting suitable funding toward a Hook & Ladder firehouse project through the town’s Capital Improvement Project budget process, a new firehouse would never be built.

Mr Cragin said the four other fire companies endorse Hook & Ladder’s approach in seeking to get a new firehouse built. He added, though, that there is no precedent for the town paying toward the construction of a new firehouse.

Subcommittee member Gary Davis urged that fire officials phase-in the construction of a new firehouse to ease the town’s financial burden for such a proposition. “I don’t think anybody wants to see this project die,” he said.

Mr Manna said firefighters would like to have firehouse construction start in the spring of 2011.

The structure would have six garage bays. It would be two stories tall. Facilities would include offices, a meeting room, a kitchen, and a dayroom. The exterior would be sheathed in clapboard-like material.

Firefighters are seeking to keep construction costs below $200 per square foot, Mr Manna said.

Claris Construction, Inc, of Newtown would be the architect, Mr Camejo added.

Ms Jacob said the project is an important one, but added that the town may not be able to fund the work as rapidly as the fire company would like.

Mr Davis urged fire officials to approach the Finance Subcommittee of the Legislative Council on March 16 with a sense of flexibility and with funding alternatives for such a project.

The Finance Subcommittee would then make some recommendation on the project to the full Legislative Council.

Members of the Public Safety Subcommittee on March 10 thus appeared to reach a consensus that a new Hook & Ladder firehouse is needed, but stressed that the town funding mechanism toward such a project has yet to be resolved.