Rochester’s Public Safety Building Committee Monday approved hiring Yarmouth Port-based Catalyst Architecture to design plans for a new main Fire Station on Pine Street, utilizing $28,000 of unused funds from the town’s Feasibility Study account.
A Feasibility Study Committee organized last year by the Select Board 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 impact business and residential growth.
Post-COVID-related cost increases, however, have forced officials to whittle these plans down to a single project, building a new fire station on the former Rochester Country Fair, Pine Street property. To that end, Rochester Select Board and Building Committee member (and Marion Harbormaster) Adam Murphy invited the same architect that designed the new Marion Harbormaster headquarters now under construction to speak to Rochester officials about providing the same service for the new Pine Street fire station design.
Monday, committee Chairman Arnold Johnson began the discussion that led to hiring Catalyst by noting the committee recently met with Catalyst officials Tim Sawyer and Kurt Raber and toured both the new Marion Harbormaster building and the current cramped quarters of the current Rochester Fire Station at Pine Street and Hartley Road.
“We need some professional help to take us to the next steps,” Johnson said. “And they’ve said they can do it rather cheaply.”
The next steps, the committee revealed, will be meeting with the Select Board on July 15 to gain its approval of Catalyst’s hire, then finalizing detailed design drawings, then seeking Town Meeting approval to fund the engineering and construction process.
Murphy said what he likes about Catalyst is they are willing to build to what the town is willing to spend. Johnson noted Catalyst will not have to rehash the feasibility study. “They can use the feasibility study to get a lot of data,” he said. “They won’t be looking to redo it.”
Before the vote to hire Catalyst, committee member David Arancio said it’s important to build a timeline that works backwards from the date of a 2025 Town Meeting to include when other steps along the way will be met. This will help both the project planners and the public, he said.
Johnson agreed. “There will have to be a big education program too,” he said. “That will take time too.”
The committee then settled on a plan to share the feasibility-study results with the public, addressing complaints the committee had received from residents. Arancio reported the study file is too large to post on the town website. Murphy suggested posting the first pages then directing them to Town Hall to view the full hard copy. The committee agreed.
The Rochester Public Safety Building Committee meets situationally and did not set another meeting date before adjourning.
Rochester Public Safety Building Committee
By Michael J. DeCicco