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05/28/2019 04:36 PMThe new training and storage facility behind Westbrook’s Fire Station #2 on Pond Meadow Road was an idea that took many years to bring to fruition. The town of Westbrook will hold a dedication ceremony next month to celebrate its completion and thank all those who helped make it happen.
The 40-foot by 80-foot building stores several trailers that will last longer, now that they’re protected from the elements. Training activities, which were previously held outdoors in the parking area, no matter the weather, now have an indoor home. When the building is needed for training purposes, the trailers will be pulled outside for the duration, and barriers constructed for training can now be stored inside, as well.
John Palermo, who has been a Westbrook volunteer firefighter for 42 years and is the town’s open burning official, oversaw the project. He took on the training/storage facility project after the death in December 2013 of longtime Westbrook firefighter and former fire chief Loren Baker, Jr.
Palermo was convinced he could lower the projected cost.
“Bids were coming in at well over $300,000, which was kind of steep for us,” he said.
The committee that had been formed to oversee the project had stalled under the assumption that the cost would be prohibitive.
“I handed out a sheet [to the members of the fire department] with different ways we could pay for it,” he said. “We had a little over $40,000 saved up in an account for that project. We could build it alone, or go to the town and ask for the money, but I didn’t think it was a good time to do that.
“Budgets were tight at the time because the state was cutting back on funding for towns,” he said.
In addition, in 2013, the town purchased a new ladder truck for about $1.3 million and, in 2015, three new pumper trucks were ordered for $2.4 million, so Palermo proposed that the fire department come up with half the money and ask the town to fund the other half.
“The department voted to let me pursue it. I filled out a grant application for the Westbrook Foundation, and the Westbrook Foundation granted me $30,000 toward the building. So now we had our half,” of the total, which at completion tallied at $73,000.
“I just spearheaded the project, got all the bids, and went to all the town agencies for permits, and got it done,” he said.
The contractor, Warner Hollister Building Company of Ivoryton, broke ground in spring 2018 and completed construction in the fall. The building is equipped with electricity, but not water or a septic system.
The Westbrook Volunteer Fire Department is otherwise known as the Westbrook Chemical Engine Co., a non-profit agency, Palermo pointed out. Its members have contributed above and beyond risking their lives fighting fires, he said.
“The town is very generous to the town with an operating budget, but we also give back,” said Palermo.
The land on which Fire Station #2 is located on West Pond Meadow Road was purchased by the members of the fire department in 1984, “before everything got developed up there,” Palermo said.
“I was an officer at the time and we kept going to the Board of Finance [BOF]: ‘You should buy some land up north; eventually it will be gone. We need a fire station up there,” he said.
According to Palermo, after approaching the BOF “a couple years in a row,” to try to convince them to build a second fire station, the firefighters decided, “‘The heck with you. We’ll do it ourselves.’
“We raised money. Bingo. We bought four acres of land,” he said.
When the town realized that a second station was needed, “We went to the town and kind of said, ‘Told you so.’ We were looking at the time to build a [second] firehouse, but we couldn’t afford it.”
The fire department donated the land to the town on the condition that it would be designated for fire department use, and Fire Station #2 was built in 1998.
The firefighters themselves have also built several brush trucks, which are designed specifically to fight brush fires.
“You buy a pickup truck and slide a unit on the back,” said Palermo.
The trucks were then outfitted with water packs and other equipment.
“A lot of people in town have no idea of the things that the fire department members have given to the town,” he said.
The dedication ceremony will take place on Wednesday, June 26 at 6 p.m. at 725 Pond Meadow Road, Westbrook.