January 10, 2008

A new firehouse for Bristol?

The city plans to investigate the possibility of building a new firehouse that could better serve its fast-growing southwestern corner.
Responding to a call from freshman city Councilor Ken Cockayne to set up a panel to probe the idea, Mayor Art Ward said, “We can set that up.”
Ward said the idea’s been kicked around for many years and with all the new houses in the Cedar Lake area of town, it’s probably time to take a look at it.
Fire Chief Jon Pose said that “a quick response time” is crucial when there’s an emergency so it would improve public safety for firefighters to be closer.
“It’s definitely a concern,” Ward said.
The city has flirted at times with moving the central firehouse a little closer to that part of town in order to cut some time off responses and free up the lucrative North Main Street site for development.
Former Mayor William Stortz said this fall there’s interest by developers in buying the firehouse.
As it is, the central station requires renovations that would cost at least $2.1 million, officials said, while building a new one might cost $4 million, not counting the land required for it.
Cockayne said he’d like to see a committee that included Pose, a City Council member, fire commissioners and perhaps some ordinary citizens.
Ward said he thinks one could be established under the auspices of the Fire Board, probably including the council representation assigned to fire issues, Democrat Cliff Block.
Second-term city Councilor Kevin McCauley, a firefighter, said he highly recommends the city look into the issue.
Ward said a new firehouse could possibly be built near Bristol Central High School or on the former Chic Miller auto dealership at the foot of the big hill on Wolcott Street.
Councilors rejected the idea of buying the former dealership last fall because of concerns about the cost and possible pollution.
City Councilor Frank Nicastro said at the time that he’s also worried about buying up more privately held land.
"We're taking a valuable piece of property off the tax rolls if we buy it," Nicastro said.
Nicastro called it a "nice piece of property, commercially zoned" and said it would be "wrong" to purchase it without a real plan.
At the time, Ward sided with Stortz and Republican city Councilor Mike Rimcoski to look into the purchase, but nobody else agreed so the idea died.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet another union payback ????

Moving 4-ward

Steve Collins said...

Did you miss the part about Republican Ken Cockayne initiating the proposal?

Anonymous said...

Ken Cockayne for Mayor in 2009!

Anonymous said...

No new ideas here, just someone new wanting to take credit.
Wasn't Nicastro the big pusher to buy property on Park Street?

Anonymous said...

Just think, if McCauley supported the idea a few months ago, we'd be further along.

Oh well

Anonymous said...

So if its and old idea, but a good one, that has stalled and a freshman councilman recognizes this and tries to initiate some movement then he should be bashed?

If Cockayne has the energy and drive to push things like this, then more power to him. He campaigned on this. It is a need of his district, whethere it is an old idea or not, shouldn't he act on it?

Cutting taxes and saving money is an old idea too. Maybe he shouldn't act on that either.

Anonymous said...

McCauley has always supported it, obviously, but being a firefighter he can't initiate these things. He can only follow the lead of others. We certainly need a new firehouse. It takes way too long for those engines to get up on Witches Rock Road. It's not about union paybacks. It's about safety!

Anonymous said...

FIRE!

Anonymous said...

I've always thought that the old grocery store site on Divinity Street would be a good spot for an EMS station - now just Fire, but maybe police too.

Anonymous said...

Prediction:
Cockayne will suggest that the city consider acquiring the property in back of city hall for the poice department.

ANd he will wonder why we taxes have to be increased.

woof said...

When the BFD starts doing first responder calls (EMS) then we can start talking about a 6th station. For the amount of calls the BFD does I can't see a 6th station needed.

How many calls a year do they do? Not counting lockouts.

What is response time now to that area? And what is the suggested response time?

Would putting in traffic light changers change that response time? How much do they cost compared to building a new firehouse?

Lots of questions should be answered before anything else.

Anonymous said...

---start talking about a 6th station---


Think about it ..... They need to close the station on North Main Street ..... since all the 'improvements' to the streetscape it is no longer viable for accessibility for their equiptment .

Anonymous said...

witches rock!

Anonymous said...

A 6th station more than likely is not needed: relocation will address the southeast issue.

As was outlined by the previous administration, it makes good economic sense for downtown development.

Anonymous said...

"The city has flirted at times with moving the central firehouse a little closer to that part of town ..."
Steve, Steve, Steve.
Your clever verbs aside, Bristol has never "flirted" with anything.
Bristol is not, never has been and never will be a "flirty" town.

Anonymous said...

Oh, on the contrary. When I think of Art Ward, John Leone, Jonathan Rosenthal, Frank Johnson, Ellen Zoppo, Donna Achille, Tim Gamache, Tom O'Brien, Ken Johnson, Ken Cockayne, I totally think FLIRT!
FLIRT, FLIRT, FLIRT!!!
It's what they do best, and it's what I so want to do whenever I'm in their presence.

Anonymous said...

Isn't forming a committee to explore the idea or study the need oging to answer many of these questions. No one is putting the carriage b/f the horse here. It is an issue that has been brought up repeatedly as the population has grown in this side of town. Why wouldn't it be looked into?

There are many possible solutions, I should hope that they will all be looked at.

Anonymous said...

Light changers are already in place so arrival times have that already figured in presently. A new station is really needed, but as usual, those who don't want to spend any money to improve this city would rather see houses burn down. That to me is not economically smart for the homeowners or the city.

Anonymous said...

McCauley should not even "follow the lead of others".
He should recuse himself.

Another station, more firefighters, bigger union, more chance for advancement and promotion.

He is no longer a rookie councilmember, he should know better.