Mass. Fire Department's Plans Get Further Scrutiny

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Jan. 14--AMESBURY -- Plans for an elevator in the renovated fire department headquarters on School Street might be scrapped as the town looks into keeping the long-closed Elm Street station open permanently, Mayor Thatcher Kezer said.

Keeping a second fire station open would give the town more square footage to work with and allow all offices to be on the first floor.

The town has come under criticism over the cost of the project. Not just the elevator has been called into question, but a gym for firefighters and the cost of rehabilitating the Elm Street station as well.

Amesbury is in the midst of renovating the fire department headquarters building. The project includes removing and building a new roof for both the fire and adjacent police stations and a fire wall between the two buildings, renovating the second floor of the fire station and constructing an addition to the fire station.

The Municipal Council authorized $2.4 million for the project.

The repairs come after mold was discovered throughout the second floor of the headquarters building. Since the discovery, firefighters have been housed in trailers directly behind the fire station.

Where to put the firefighters during the construction prompted the fire chief, Jonathan Brickett, and the mayor to find other locations. It was determined that keeping firefighters in the trailers while construction was going on could be costly and dangerous.

Last spring, the town decided to use the Elm Street fire station as a temporary base once work started at the fire station. Using Elm Street station was deemed less expensive than keeping the firefighters in the trailers and having the construction crews work around them.

The town plans to return the trailers, saving $30,000 of what they would have had to pay to keep them throughout the construction. However the town has spent more than $100,000 to bring the Elm Street station up to code to make it inhabitable.

As the town looked for places to keep its firefighters and equipment during the construction at the headquarters, the Elm Street station wasn't the only location considered.

The old Andrews building and the former Dodge dealership on Route 110 near the Salisbury line were also possibilities, Kezer said. Those locations either wanted long-term leases or couldn't store all the fire vehicles.

Brickett said one location wanted $50,000 a month for rent.

Current plans call for the fire chief's office and other administration offices on the second floor, and that requires an elevator because of the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. The elevator and its installation would cost $500,000.

Whenever federal, state, local, or private money is used on a public building, once 30 percent of the value of the building is spent on repairs or additions, the building needs to become fully accessible.

If the second floor is for employees only, an elevator would not be needed.

"At the beginning of the project when we analyzed the options, we looked at having the administration office on an expanded second floor with an elevator and we looked at a larger expansion of the building in order to move the administration office to the first floor," the mayor said. "We determined that it was cheaper to put in the elevator on that footprint than expand the first level as much as necessary."

"That's the reason why we went the path with the elevator," Kezer added.

Kezer said his staff is always analyzing different plans, from different angles "to find the most cost-effective approach."

"Now, new circumstances are changing calculations, and we're, therefore, analyzing that approach," Kezer said. The town has already spent approximately $148,135 on the Elm Street fire station rehabilitation, based on figures provided by the town's finance office.

For decades, the Elm Street station was used for storage, but it was always heated, and there was always electricity hooked up to the building, the fire chief said.

"That's part of my operating budget," Brickett said. "The electricity was on, the heat was on. We made it more efficient with the work."

Brickett said the money used to rehabilitate the Elm Street station included installing a new heating system, putting in new wiring, new plumbing, new windows and new interior walls with insulation.

Costs questioned

The cost would have been more, Brickett said, had not firefighters, including himself, donated their own time to work on fixing up the building.

"I can't say enough for the firefighters and people who donated their time. It's all donated time. I heard all the things," Brickett said, referring to accusations from some who accuse the firefighters of working on the Elm Street station while on the clock or getting overtime pay.

Brickett said he was in a bucket truck last Saturday priming the exterior wood in front of the building. He said other people were cleaning the floor.

"It's donated time. Period. We utilized the trades out there; we got the quotes ... But the stuff we could do in-house, we did that. All the pickup trucks people were seeing, they belong to us," Brickett said.

When it came to trade work, professionals were used, including retired firefighter Ozzie Morrill's electrical company to do the electrical work, install a generator, work on the heating and ventilation work.

Brickett said Morrill's company, Morrill Electric, has a contract with the town to do electrical work when needed.

Regardless, Brickett said, they looked at three other quotes and Morrill's was best price.

"We didn't just rely on the contract for the town," Brickett said.

Morrill Electric was paid $36,964.64 on the Elm Street project.

For the firefighters' exercise room, Iain McGregor, an Amesbury firefighter/paramedic and president of union Local 1783, said that having one in the station will help the department win grants for exercise machines. The fire department already has gym equipment in the basement that would be moved to the room.

The designers of the building didn't plan on making that space a gym, McGregor said. The room was originally identified as storage space, but the chief asked to rename it a gym to apply for grant money, McGregor said.

McGregor said there are numerous grants for exercise equipment for public safety departments.

"You have to provide a dedicated space to obtain grant money," he said. "If we pick an area and title it a gym area, we met our requirement."

McGregor said fitness is important to firefighters, since approximately 100 die each year in the line of duty and a little less than half are cardiac related.

McGregor said firefighters belong to local gyms, but they would like to have access to physical fitness equipment while on duty.