MA Firehouse Renovations Aimed at Improving Livability

NEW BEDFORD, MA—Firefighters at Station 8 in the city's near North End are about to get a little more comfortable.

Renovations have started on the station's living quarters, according to the city's Director of Facilities and Fleets Management Mark Champagne, that will include new shower facilities and restrooms and refinishing some of the bunk areas.

The renovations have already started and are expected to take a total of seven to eight weeks, according to Champagne, shaving weeks off the originally projected 10 weeks.

The station was built in 1893 and Champagne said, "certainly the building was in need of upgrading of restroom and bathroom facilities," which he said he doesn't believe have been touched in decades.

The contract for the project is $391,000, according to Champagne, which is funded by the city's Capital Improvement Program.

Champagne said through the program that they identify capital projects at several city facilities as part of their five-year working plan.

In February, Mayor Jon Mitchell submitted a loan order for $5,478,000 for the Capital Improvements program to the City Council "for the purpose of making critically needed repairs to City-owned buildings including, but not limited to, projects for the repair and renovation of public safety facilities, recreational facilities, general office space and road and infrastructure."

According to Champagne, his department looks at the fire stations each year and decides what needs to be improved.

The decision to make the improvements to Station 8 centered on livability, according to Champagne.

"It really has to do with livability, the crews that are there for their shift... they live there," he said, "It's their sleeping quarters, where they bathe, where they eat, so they essentially live in the station."

In recent years, Station 8 has seen the construction of a clean room on the first floor that gives firefighters an area to decontaminate in a separate area of the facility when they come back from fire calls and a roof replacement that included gutter work, according to Champagne.

Other fire stations have also received Capital Improvement Program funds for renovations.

Station 2, fire department headquarters, has received funds from the Capital Improvement Program in the past to replace the apparatus floor and to perform roof-surface replacement to stop water infiltration, according to Champagne.

Other work on stations over the last three or four years has included installing a new roof on Station 5, rebuilding a hose tower on Station 7 because brick started to fall out of it, and remodeling the kitchen at Station 11.

"There's still work to be done in most of the facilities, but we peck away at it," Champagne said, "It would be impossible to go top to bottom and get it all done at one shot, it's too much money."

The cost of the fire department has been a topic for discussion in New Bedford for years, even more so recently when the city made the decision to decommission Engine 11 on the South End peninsula and place it into reserve status.

The decision was a recommendation of Fire Chief Paul Coderre. According to city Public Information officer Jonathan Carvalho, the decision was meant to end the Fire Department's practice of taking one of the city's ten fire companies out of service on a rotating daily basis.

"If the Department were to fully staff 10 fire companies, the cost of the 24 positions in the additional company would be about $2.6 million annually, plus another $100,000 on average in operating costs, for a total of $2.7 million a year," Carvalho said of the decision to renovate one fire station while decommissioning an engine company. "While the first fire station in New Bedford in more than 60 years is being constructed in the South End, Station 8 is located in the near North End. Station 8 was built in 1893, and at almost 130 years old, requires renovations."

The Standard-Times reached out to Fire Chief Paul Coderre and Deputy Chief Scott Kruger for comment on this story, but was referred to Mark Champagne.

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