New firehouse plan to go before voters in September

By Peter Marteka

A $15 million proposal to build a new East Haddam Fire Company 2 building is in its final planning stages with a referendum scheduled for Sept. 15.

The Moodus Firehouse building committee recently held a public hearing on the proposal to demolish the current firehouse on William F. Palmer Road and replace it with a 14,500-square-foot facility bringing it up to 21^st century firefighting standards.

The proposed facility would include five drive-through apparatus bays, capacity for approximately 8–10 pieces of equipment, bunk rooms and bedrooms for full-time staff, a commercial kitchen, a training room, gear storage, decontamination rooms with holding tanks and laundry facilities.

“The current piece of property would function as it has for the past 30-plus years perfectly as a firehouse,” said committee chairman Craig Mansfield. “We didn’t need to go out and purchase another piece of property.”

Mansfield noted the goal of the project is to “build a firehouse today that would function for the community today and into the next 50 years” and to create a project “as affordable as we could possibly make it.”

If approved by voters, the committee noted taxpayers would pay an additional $90 a year for a home assessed at $100,000; an additional $179 annually for a house assessed at $200,000; an additional $224 annually for a house assessed at $250,000 and an additional $269 annually for a house assessed at $300,000. That comes out to daily costs of 24 cents, 49 cents, 61 cents and 74 cents respectively.

“About less than a cup of coffee every day to ensure we have a firehouse that will support the community and not fall down on millions of dollars' worth of equipment,” Mansfield said.

Resident Jeff Miller, who spoke at the meeting, pointed out a lot of people in town are retired and on a fixed income. He also noted that the upcoming revaluation could change the assessment figures.

The project would take 12 months to complete with David Stein of Silver Petrucelli & Associates noting the new building would be compartmentalized for better and safer organization and has more storage and larger bays to house bigger equipment. He noted the building would sit on a 12-inch concrete slab, with a masonry base under fiber cement siding. The current facility sits on the ground which has led to structural issues.

“We didn’t want this building to look as utilitarian as it currently does now,” he said. “We felt it needed more architecture to enhance the neighborhood redevelopment.”

Mansfield said the committee has applied for state bonding and is looking for grants and other funding opportunities including a USDA loan. He noted that grant funding opportunities are “few and far between.”

Prior to the referendum, there will be more community meetings, meetings with boards and commissions along with a website, informational flyers, social media, and a decorative fence scrim.