BERNARDSTON — Coming off a busy week of calls and the welcome award of $1 million in federal funding, members of the Bernardston Fire Department were ready to greet guests on Saturday during the open house for the new Fire Station.
The Fire Department has been operating out of this 6,320-square-foot space at 167 Northfield Road since March 2025, having moved from the former station at 18 Church St. after years of planning for a new location finally came to fruition. In July 2023, Town Meeting voters authorized the purchase of the roughly 24-acre property that was once owned by Raymond’s Repair for $1.6 million, which is being paid over 10 years.
More than 100 people passed through the doors of the new station on Saturday. The day featured open access to the garage, office spaces and two fire engines parked inside the station, as well as photo opportunities with Smokey Bear, lunch and checks of car seats offered by Northfield EMS.
Bernardston Fire Chief Peter Shedd said that while the new station is not in the center of town, the department still has quick access to Route 10 as well as to Interstate 91. He also noted the difference in the amount of space, with the old station being about one-third the size at 2,378 square feet. Other upgrades include new garage doors, weather stripping and new building siding, making it a “much more airtight” building than it was before.
The new station comes at a time when the department is experiencing higher call volumes. In 2023, the call volume was about 300, compared to the 30 to 40 calls per year in the 1970s when the Church Street station was first built. Shedd explained last March that the larger station would be important for better emergency response and handling this call volume.
While the department is noticing aspects of the building that could be updated in the future — namely, having exterior outlets for plugging in equipment and installing new concrete floors in the garage — Shedd said the cost savings to the town is the biggest gain.
“Our last estimate for building next to the old fire station was $5.6 million or something like that,” Shedd said, referencing an old plan before the Raymond’s Repair building was purchased and renovated for the Fire Department’s use. “We did all the demo work. We did all the free labor and everything else, so it was a tremendous team effort.”
Raymond’s Repair has since relocated to Winchester, New Hampshire, with owner Christopher Raymond sharing on Saturday that the garage that now houses the Fire Station was built between 1985 and 1986 by him and his father.
Four decades later, Raymond is happy with this outcome.
“I’m tremendously happy that the town ended up with it and it stayed. I didn’t want it to go anywhere else, so it worked out great,” Raymond said.
Shedd pointed out the numerous local partners on this project, from the Raymond family to local businesses. He said Scott and Jordan DiGeorge of DiGeorge Builders are connected to the space, both as the lead contractors for the renovation project and also being Bernardston firefighters. Between their day jobs and commitment to the department, Shedd said there were some late days and nights to bring everything together.
Scott DiGeorge agreed with Shedd, calling the process “challenging” while managing all the different pieces of the move-in while Raymond’s Repair was moving out, and still managing all the emergency calls and working full-time outside of the Fire Department. In the end, he said he feels “great satisfaction” over the outcome.
“I just hope that people look at what teamwork can do as a brotherhood, a community,” DiGeorge said about his hope for the community’s response. “Taking something from what it was to turn it into something like this is a pretty good achievement.”
Federal support
A big boost for the Fire Department came only a few days before the open house in the form of a $1 million United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant.
Shedd said the USDA Rural Development Community Facilities Grant will help with the replacement of Engine 2, with any remaining money going toward facility upgrades.
“It was great timing,” he said of this grant coming through. He added that the $1 million award will save the taxpayers from additional spending.
USDA Rural Development Southern New England State Director Christopher Lyon said in a grant announcement on April 15 that the funding “strengthens our commitment to protecting residents and ensuring every family in Bernardston has a safer place to call home.”
“Firefighters are heroes who put their lives on the line to keep us safe,” Congressman Jim McGovern said in a statement. “They deserve nothing but the best, and I’m thrilled my team and I were able to work in partnership with Bernardston to secure a major portion of the funding” for the town.
Looking to the future, Shedd, when asked about what he hopes people take away from their visit to the new station on Saturday, said that staffing remains a challenge.
“I hope people will spark an interest,” Shedd said, adding that, perhaps between a new truck and a new building, some may think the Fire Department is “a happening place.”
