The committee charged with examining how to combine, replace or rehab Rochester’s Police and Fire stations to alleviate cramped quarters needs expert help to take its planning to the next step.
Public Safety Building Committee Chairman Arnold Johnson told Rochester’s Select Board Monday, “We need some direction, some professional help in some capacity to whittle down the options. Other than that, I don’t see us gaining ground on this project otherwise.”
The Select Board said the next step should include finding how other towns with public-safety building projects under their belt, such as Mattapoisett, have organized their planning process.
The favored option that evolved from a feasibility study completed late last year was to renovate and expand the 26 Dexter Lane Police Station, build a new Fire Station headquarters at 65 Pine Street or on Mendell Road and further down the timeline, build a fire substation on High Street, where a quicker emergency response will be needed when a proposed, 60-unit, senior-housing development is built off Routes 28 and 58.
With both “hard” and “soft” construction costs and associated costs included, project consultant Ted Gallant said at the time that the two-site plan would cost roughly $32,000,000, and the sub-station plan would bump that cost up to $35,000,000.
Johnson told the Select Board Monday that this study presented options that would prove too costly for the town to afford. Johnson said his committee was looking at the option of acquiring a prefabricated building to bring costs down to closer to $10,000,000, but the firm that created the study is not interested in helping with that type of construction plan, he added.
“We need some direction, some professional assistance who knows state mandates and fire codes,” Johnson said. Maybe a professional fire engineer who’s retired.”
Select Board member Adam Murphy said what has to be done first is reuniting members of the disbanded Feasibility Study Committee in a meeting with people from Mattapoisett (where a new Fire Station opened in the fall of 2021). “Get that group back together,” Murphy said. Johnson said he would set up that meeting right after the Memorial Day holiday.
Murphy explained that without this expert help at this stage of the process, “we’d have to go out to bid to fully design it.”
In other action, the board approved member Brad Morse’s motion to put on a Fall Town Meeting warrant an article to change the town clerk position from elected to appointed. A move to change the town clerk to a position appointed by the Select Board failed under a loud “no” vote at the 2023 Annual Town Meeting. It was known at the time that Paul Dawson was retiring from the job; Margorie Barrows was elected last year.
Interim Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar announced the Council on Aging has received two new vehicles, a mini-van and a 12-passenger vehicle through a $95,000 matching grant award. The town’s share of that grant, $39,000, was appropriated at last year’s Town Meeting, she said.
The board approved the contract with Iron Horse Structures to install two new salt sheds at the Department of Public Works’ Ryder Road property.
The board approved granting Szyndlar authority to sign day-to-day documents and grant awards.
Paul Meunier of Boxberry Lane asked the Select Board’s help securing guest passes to Marion’s town beach. He said not being to access these passes has been a hardship for his daughter, who visits with her two children yet cannot find beach parking. Board members responded they are negotiating with Marion to resolve this problem that other Rochester residents also have had. Murphy explained Rochester has rights to Marion water but not the beaches.
The Rochester Select Board did not set a future meeting date upon adjournment.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco