Possible Site For Ambulance Garage—

Soil Tests Performed To Gauge Construction Potential

By Andrew Gorosko

Preliminary results from soil testing performed this week on an approximately four-acre site on Sugar Street indicate that the wet property holds sufficient usable space for the potential construction of a new Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps ambulance garage, but not enough usable area to build a new firehouse for the Newtown Hook & Ladder Volunteer Fire Company.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said Wednesday that several soil test pits dug on the site Wednesday indicate there likely would be enough usable area on the southwest corner of the property to build an ambulance garage there. The fire company, however, would require more contiguous usable space on the site than is available, he said.

The site is on the north side of Sugar Street, directly west of the Town Hall South property and The Pleasance, a privately-owned park that is open to the public.

The four-acre site has been offered to either the fire company or the ambulance corps at no cost by the Smith Family Partnership.

R. Scudder Smith, who heads the partnership, said Thursday, “We’re pleased to see that finally some progress is being made toward developing the property…We hope that Hook & Ladder and/or the ambulance association will be able to use the site and have it fit their needs for years to come.”

Several years ago, the partnership offered to donate the land to the fire company for construction of a new firehouse to replace the company’s existing structurally unsound firehouse at 45 Main Street.

Recently, Hook & Ladder Fire Chief Ray Corbo said the fire company finds the Sugar Street site a “desirable and well suited” place to construct a new firehouse, in accepting the partnership’s offer to donate the land. Chief Corbo had added, though, that the property’s construction potential had yet to be determined.

Chief Corbo said Thursday of this week’s preliminary soil test results, “Preliminarily, it’s a little disappointing.” But, he added, “The land is the way it is.”

Chief Corbo said he hopes that the town explores other alternatives for a new Hook & Ladder firehouse. “The problem’s not going to go away,” he said of the structural deficiencies at the existing Hook & Ladder firehouse.

Richard Marnicki, a consulting structural engineer for the town, plans to soon submit a report on the construction potential of the Sugar Street site.