The Public Safety Facility Feasibility Study Committee on February 14 agreed with consultant Ted Galante’s new focus for examining whether to combine, replace or rehab the town’s police and fire stations.
At the conclusion of Gallante’s presentation on study options Tuesday afternoon, he and the board agreed his firm will focus on a plan to renovate and expand the 26 Dexter Lane police station, build a new fire station headquarters at 65 Pine Street and further down the timeline, build a fire sub-station at 0 High St., where a quicker emergency response will be needed when a proposed senior housing development is built at Route 58 and 28.
With both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ construction and associated costs included, the two-site plan will cost roughly $32 million, Gallante said. The sub-station plan will bump that cost up to $35 million.
Gallante clarified that his current estimates don’t yet include what kind of ‘programming’ planners will decide will go in these new interiors.
He began the meeting by detailing all the options for what he called a Master Plan for improving the town’s public safety facilities. At 26 Dexter Lane, the town could expand and modify the existing police station, which right now suffers from lack of adequate space. The small sally port and conference room would be taken down and replaced with a new, larger sally port and a two-story extension. At 65 Pine St., the town would build a Fire Department headquarters or a combined police/fire facility.
Before the board agreed to these two plans, another option, Gallante said, is building a new fire or police station at 0 Mendell Road, though this parcel is not town-owned and includes wetlands.
The advantage to 0 High St. is that it is town-owned, town administrator Glenn Cannon said. Fire chief Scott Weigel said the sub-station proposal for that location should be part of a five-year plan because the senior housing project is only in its developmental stage.
Board member and selectman Brad Morse suggested the panel vote on which option it prefers. But other members said that will be rushing matters.
Board member David Arancio said that as town moderator he knows the public will need a ton of information to make a wise decision on this project at town meeting. He said the target should not be to schedule a vote on this for the May’s annual town meeting.
The board agreed, leading Gallante to happily conclude his firm will be able to just focus on the conceptual plans and budget figures for these options and return with them at the next meeting. That meeting was scheduled for March 14 at 2:30 pm in the meeting room of the Town Office Building, 1 Constitution Way, Rochester.
The February 14 meeting also featured committee members noting that the Rochester Country Fair, which took place annually at 65 Pine Street, has been discontinued; the fair committee has disbanded.
Rochester Public Safety Facility Feasibility Study Committee
By Michael J. DeCicco