On a recent sunny day, several workers were busy renovating the interior of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company's newly expanded fire substation at 249 Berkshire Road (State Route 34).

The town's capital improvement plan for the current fiscal year designates $375,000 for renovating/expanding the substation.

Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead said that the project, which began in October, is slated to be done by the end of April.

The substation has been expanded by 2,000 square feet, increasing the building's size from 1,568 square feet to 3,568 square feet.

The new 2,000-square-foot garage containing two bays has a driveway that connects it to Nighthawk Lane. From now on, fire vehicles will enter and exit the site at Nighthawk Lane. Formerly they entered and exited the original substation at Berkshire Road.

The Nighthawk Lane access point is considered safer than Berkshire Road because Nighthawk Lane is a residential dead-end street that carries little traffic, while the hilly, curving Berkshire Road carries much high-speed traffic.

The project will include a landscaped buffer between Berkshire Road and the substation. Also, the driveway extending from Nighthawk Lane will interconnect with pavement in front of the original substation.

The substation houses Engine 442, a town-owned fire engine that Sandy Hook firefighters store there for quick responses to emergencies in that general area. Also, the substation will continue to house the fire company's "spill trailer," a trailer that is packed with supplies used for cleanup work at fluid spills.

Sandy Hook's main fire station, where most of its fire equipment is stored, is at 18 Riverside Road.

The town has five volunteer fire companies, including the Sandy Hook company. Sandy Hook is the only fire company with two firehouses.

The space at the substation that was formerly used for fire vehicle storage is under conversion and will become an office, dayroom, kitchenette, a shower, a second rest room, and auxiliary storage space. Those renovations will create facilities that firefighters will be occupying on a regular basis, Chief Halstead said.

The fire chief estimated that the fire engine kept at the substation responds to about one third of the Sandy Hook fire company's calls.

Last August, Planning and Zoning Commission members unanimously approved the substation expansion/renovation project.

The substation, which was built in the late 1960s on a 2.4-acre site in a R-2 (Residential) zone, no longer met the fire company's needs, so the expansion/renovation project was planned, according to Chief Halstead.