By Adam Swift
The town’s Firehouse Building Committee held its first meeting with the project’s new owner’s project manager, P3, earlier this month.
P3 will help oversee the construction of the new $38.5 million fire station at the site of the old middle school.
“Dan Pallotta (P3’s president) was there and gave a great presentation and updated us about a timeline, which you will hear a lot more about,” Town Council President Jim Letterie said at last week’s council meeting. “We actually have a company that is finishing up work … behind the middle school, behind the old auditorium. They are looking at the bricks, they are looking at the pipes, what is covering the pipes.
“They are trying to get a good report on us on asbestos and other related items that we need to clear out, so they will give us a report (on that).”
That report will then be used as part of a request for qualifications (RFQ) to bring in a potential demolition company that will take care of abating the building and demolition.
“The plan is to have demolition done by the end of calendar year 2025,” Letterie said, with the abatement beginning in the early fall of this year and demolition following later in the fall.
The town also has an RFQ out for an architect which closes this week, Letterie said. He said the town should have an architect onboard for the project in early July.
“The thought process is by early to mid-spring of 2026, we will have shovels in the ground digging and building the new fire station with a goal of probably a 14- to 15-month build,” said Letterie. “Hopefully by the fall of 2027, late fall into early winter, we will be opening the fire station.”
Letterie said the town is still looking for citizens interested in serving on a firehouse reuse committee to help decide how the town will use the two old fire stations once the new fire station is completed and ready for use.