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08/15/2017 04:30 PMIt has been a long process so far, but plans for a new fire house in Deep River are still under consideration. Most agree the current house at Union Street and Route 80 is simply too small for a modern department, but finding the solution has been the challenge.
“It’s been going on longer than I’ve been a selectman, longer than I’ve been in town—it’s come to vote at least twice,” said First Selectman Angus McDonald. “I was involved in a committee to study the current location to see if the new firehouse could fit; that started two years ago. The property is small. It would be tight, but we thought it could work.”
While evaluating the property the current fire house sits on, the committee was also looking at a secondary site, as there were a number of engineering questions to be considered on the current site to make the building compliant with FEMA regulations. Pursuit of the other property is stalled, so, in the meantime, attention has been turned back to the current location.
A possible solution to what McDonald refers to as an immediate need for the town is to renovate the current structure, using it for apparatus storage only, and then building a new section on the property that would be used for offices, a meeting area, and as an emergency operations center. This option was presented to the Fire Department last week; McDonald expects to hear feedback from the department on this proposal in the near future.
“There are issues and concerns with this idea,” said McDonald. “It is attractive to me because it can save a tremendous amount of money—upwards of $2 million—so that to me is worth exploring.”
He hopes to speak with the architect soon, and have a real review of FEMA regulations as well as the engineering costs that would be involved in making the property compliant.
For those who think that the need might not be so immediate, Angus suggests attending the fire department’s community breakfasts.
“I encourage people to go to that, not only for the fundraising, but to get a good look at the building and see the need that is there. The building is old. It was state-of-the-art when it was built, but the office space is small. Even the apparatus space [is too small]. Trucks have gotten bigger over the years,” said McDonald. “What I’m hoping is that if we take the offices out of it, the spaces will be big enough for apparatus, and put the office space in the new building.
“We need a fire house, there is absolutely no questions about it,” said McDonald. “The timeline, it’s as soon as possible. We don’t want this to stall, but at the same time, I don’t want to rush and get something done to just get it done. We want it to last 50 or 60 years.”