GREENFIELD — There have been several changes to the plans for both a temporary and permanent Fire Station, including an extra $1.7 million to build a temporary station in the municipal parking lot on Hope Street and a switch of location from Main and Wells streets to the open-air market property on Main Street that the city will have to purchase for the permanent.
According to Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, the city-owned Riddell Street property cannot be considered because the city will not receive the $2.5 million originally earmarked by the state for cleanup of the property due to budget changes resulting from the pandemic.
“The cleanup needed to happen to build the Fire Station there,” she said.
Wedegartner, who will ask the City Council to vote another $5 million in October, said the project must move forward, though, because the new Greenfield Public Library cannot be built without first razing the current Fire Station on Main Street. Because of that, City Council will need to approve the extra money by October to keep the library project on track.
“The current budget for building the new fire station did not include either money to purchase property for the permanent building and purchase and build a temporary fire house with related structure,” Wedegartner said. “Those costs have to come out to the $10 million funding, leaving the budget for design, construction and related ‘soft costs’ short by several million.”
Ten million dollars was set aside for the new Fire Station by a council vote in May, because former Mayor William Martin requested that amount when the plan was to build on the municipally owned Riddell Street property and the city wasn’t going to have to purchase a private property. That amount also didn’t include a temporary station.
While some have suggested the Fire Department stay on Main Street while construction begins on the new library, others say it would cause too many safety hazards to have construction vehicles and machinery there while fire trucks move in and out.
Most recently, the city had decided to negotiate with the owner of the former Carr Hardware building on Main and Wells streets for the permanent Fire Station, but those negotiations didn’t go anywhere — the city made an offer and still hasn’t heard from the owner.
So instead, the city has decided to build a permanent station on the open-air market property on Main Street and Coombs Avenue.
Project Manager Neil Joyce said that, based on criteria, including proximity to Main Street, access and parking, the Main and Wells property was the city’s first choice and the open-air market property was the second.
Joyce said the city considered everything, from those two properties, to the First Congregational Church on Silver Street and the former Red Barn property on River Street. For the temporary station, it considered the Wells and Main property, the open-air market property, high school fields and others it had considered for the permanent station.
The city has decided it will not include police and dispatchers by building a public safety complex because it won’t be able to afford that until 2030 or later, so police and dispatchers will stay on High Street.
“Two apparatus structures will be built on the municipal parking lot,” if funding is approved by City Council, “along with one or two small buildings that would house equipment, a day room and living quarters for on-duty firefighters,” Joyce said.
If approved, bidding will happen for construction of the temporary structures over the holidays, and construction would begin next year so the current Fire Station could be handed over to the library for demolition. That would most likely happen in late summer to early fall, Joyce said.
The extra $1.7 million would be used to rent apparatus bays for Hope Street, office trailers, equipment relocation and restoration of the municipal parking lot when the Fire Department leaves it.
“The Fire Station is not ‘just a garage’ that houses fire trucks,” Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan said.
He said the station does everything from house on-duty firefighters to provide space for maintaining equipment and vehicles, to keeping equipment washed and disinfected, to providing tours for students who want to learn about what firefighters do.
While some say they don’t feel comfortable financing a permanent Fire Station until they have more firm plans, Strahan said he doesn’t want to move his employees into a temporary site until he knows there are firm plans for a permanent one to be built in the near future.
The permanent station would most likely not be built until at least the end of 2023.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.