Fire Department Hosting Open Houses for New Fire Station Vote

By Adam Swift

The Winthrop Fire Department will host open houses at the two current fire stations on Pauline and Shirley Streets on Saturday, March 8 as part of the public outreach in advance of the debt exclusion vote for a new fire station at the old middle school site.

The open houses at both stations will take place from 8 a.m. to noon, and residents will get a firsthand look at the condition of the stations, which are both well over a century old. The fire department is requesting that the open house on March 8 be for adults only. While department officials said they are happy to schedule visits for any families who want to bring their children to the station, the focus of these open houses will be on providing information on the debt exclusion vote and plans for the new fire station.

The debt exclusion vote is scheduled for Saturday, April 5. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the regular polling locations in the town. In addition to the fire station vote, there will be two school override questions on the ballot.

At the latest Firehouse Building Committee meeting on Monday night, the focus was on outreach to the public in anticipation of the April 5 vote.

In addition to the open house, building committee members discussed getting the firehouse building website updated, creating social media pages, and the possibility of sending out mailers, printing signs, and other informational tools.

Town Council President Jim Letterie said the town is also close to reaching the budget figure that will be on the ballot. He estimated the figure would likely be around $38 million. 

Building committee members also discussed the potential income the current Shirley Street fire station could bring into the town if it was converted to residential units.

Earlier this year, the town council voted to move forward with a request to build a new fire station at the Walden Street basketball courts, but later decided to move forward with the old middle school site.

Under that plan, the middle school building and auditorium would be demolished, but the school gymnasium would remain intact for use by the town.

The initial cost estimate for a three-story fire station at the old middle school was around $40 million, but Letterie said because some of the infrastructure work that it was initially thought would need to be done is under the gymnasium, the total cost should come in closer to $38 million.

Fire Chief and building committee Chair Scott Wiley noted that a lot of the real work for the building committee will start if the debt exclusion passes.

“The real, heavy lifting of this committee starts after it passes,” he said. “Once this passes is when the real work starts; hiring (owner project managers), hiring architects, hiring builders, going through interviews, interviewing multiple architects, interviewing multiple builders. Then we break up into sub-groups and go from there, and it is a couple of years project.

“I think it is safe to say that from the election date, it is two-and-a-half years.”