Citing the ongoing construction of a new harbormaster’s headquarters in the Town of Marion, Rochester Select Board member (and Marion Harbormaster) Adam Murphy invited the same architect, Tim Sawyer of Catalyst, to sit with the Rochester Public Safety Building Committee on Monday morning.
The committee, represented Monday by Murphy, Fire Chief Scott Weigel, Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Eldridge, Facilities Manager Andrew Daniel and Interim Town Administrator/Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar, was joined by Chairman Arnie Johnson in time for Sawyer and teammate Kurt Raber to summarize for Johnson’s benefit – and perhaps their own and the committee at large – what was accomplished.
Rochester needs a new fire station; its present facility on Pine Street next to Rochester Memorial School is terribly outdated and in many ways only remains operational thanks to extraordinary institutional knowledge of the current department personnel.
A Feasibility Study Committee organized last year by the Select Board originally looked into a potentially three-pronged upgrade to the town’s public-safety facilities consisting of a new main Fire Station, a significant renovation/expansion of the Police Department’s headquarters on Dexter Lane and if it could be funded, a Fire Department “substation” on the east side of town to shorten response times to a Route 28 area experiencing impactful business and residential growth.
During that time, Cambridge-based architect designer Ted Gallant was contracted to work with the committee on its three-fold vision, but it was quickly determined that a Fire Station alone that would rival the one that the Town of Mattapoisett constructed for under $10,000,000 before COVID-related inflation struck the economy would cost Rochester more than twice that much money.
For now, the substation is being considered a future project. The Rochester Fire Department presently has a second location on Ryder Road, where it shares space with the town’s Highway Department. The Police expansion/renovation is on hold, and the focus is on a long-awaited replacement for the main Fire Station on Pine Street.
Its work complete, the Feasibility Study Committee was disbanded, and the Building Committee was created in its place to take next steps in enacting the process whereby the best possible design can gain taxpayer support.
Asked by the committee, Sawyer said Catalyst has designed fire stations and rattled off some familiar Massachusetts town on Cape Cod (Barnstable, Cotuit) and on the mainland (Middleboro, East Bridgewater).
Johnson asked Sawyer if Catalyst’s design will be based on what the Feasibility Study Committee achieved with Gallant’s guidance or on Weigel’s needs-based changes.
“A little bit of both,” said Sawyer, who acknowledged a “stick-built” station would cost the town over $24,000,000 and said there will be “significant savings with a prebuild” construction process. Sawyer said that he will start out using a prebuild such as a Morton or Cape Builders construction as the assumption. There will be no reinventing the wheel.
Sawyer acknowledged that “the numbers that are in there are scary. … We’re seeing projects that we used to build that were $400 a foot that are now $600 … the market is not coming down.” He also said, “You want it to be that rebust building that’s going to stand for a long time … but you can do that in a pre-engineered metal or wood building. There’s a way to be practical.”
Weigel is not interested in a new station being “all beautiful” but “one that fits all our needs.” Housing expensive equipment and keeping it out of the elements when not in use is a priority.
The committee hopes it can get a practical, sturdy building for approximately $12,000,000.
According to the Building Committee, Rochester has fulfilled its obligations to Gallant and is free to move on to another designer. The idea in bringing in Sawyer wasn’t to reinvent the floor plan but to mobilizing the process.
“We need to ramp this up and push it forward,” said Murphy. “Yes, we have (cost) targets, but we have to get the project right.”
For under $30,000 (to be paid with leftover budget from the Feasibility Study Committee and possibly ARPA funding), Catalyst will put together a draft proposal and come back to the town for feedback that will presumably be tweaked by the Building Committee before Catalyst goes before the Select Board. For legal reasons, Catalyst’s costs cannot exceed $30,000 without triggering a bidding process that Rochester can avoid for now.
Sawyer explained that by taking the work accomplished by the town with Gallant and adjusting from that, Rochester can achieve a “targeted cost” design study that will focus on the Fire Station with details such as building elevations on a cost estimate tied to a specific design.
“At the end of it, you’re going to know where you’re at,” said Sawyer.
Because a “debt exclusion” (loan) will be required for construction, Sawyer suggested offering imagery of the design that the public can access before casting its votes at Town Meeting and on a ballot question at the ensuing Town Election.
Szyndlar said the town could try to target the special Fall Town Meeting and add a Town Election, but the committee and Sawyer were less than optimistic the project can be ready in time.
“We have to have a big education campaign,” said Johnson.
Marion used an informational campaign involving multiple open houses at its existing Department of Public Works facilities on Route 6 in a successful bid to get taxpayer support for a new DPW operations center to be built near the Benson Brook landfill and the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
Eldridge suggested upon adjournment that Sawyer and Raber join the committee for a walk-through of the current Fire Station on Pine Street. They were given a tour that may become available to the public before long.
Rochester Public Safety Building Committee
By Mick Colageo