April 10, 2009

City eyeing a new firehouse


The city is eyeing a new $4 million fire station to replace the existing one on Vincent P. Kelly Road.

City officials hope to snag federal economic stimulus money to pay for construction of the new four-bay firehouse that would take the place of the half century old Engine 4 building.

The existing building has two bays for trucks.

City councilors plan Tuesday to ask for a necessary review of the idea by the Planning Commission.

“We have absolutely nothing to lose by pursuing it,” Mayor Art Ward said Friday.

He said that if Bristol’s firehouse is among the projects funded, the federal government would wind up paying 80 percent of the cost of the new station, leaving the city with only an $800,000 bill to get a new building.

At this point, there has been no design work, so the first step for the city would be to hire an architect to draw up the particulars for a firehouse there.

But several officials said the city would likely use an off-the-shelf design to shorten the timetable, allowing for construction to begin relatively soon.

That is part of the reason the city chose to begin its long-term plan to overhaul firehouses with the one on Vincent P. Kelly Road, they said. Its location makes it much easier to use a standard design than the other firehouses.

A possible upgrade for the city’s firehouses has been in the works for several years.

“It was already in the mix of things to do,” Ward said.

Officials said the extra bays may make it possible to coordinate the repairs and maintenance of fire vehicles with the public works garage across the street. There’s a chance for more coordination and efficiency in the operation, they said.


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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

27 comments:

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

Earth to City Hall:
YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT!

How about passing on Obama's glad-handing and use the $800,000 of Bristol taxpayers money to balance the budget?

Anonymous said...

Or use the $800,000 to fix the roads in Bristol. Has anyone been driving around town lately. What a disgrace. Priorities need to be set.

Anonymous said...

6:49

Are you aware that Ward is cutting the road repair budget IN HALF?

You think the roads are bad now?

amazing grace said...

what part of saving over 3 million dollars don't you understand dumbo?

Anonymous said...

So Artie and Klocko are crying that they are 1.6 Million in the hole and they need to balance the budget on the backs of city workers through union concessions but their gonna drop $800,000 on a new fire house?

GIMME A BREAK!

Anonymous said...

"Are you aware that Ward is cutting the road repair budget IN HALF?"

First you bitch because he's not making budget cuts, then you bitch because he is???

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

Only a liberal Dumb-o-crat would think spending $800,000 on something non-essential is "saving" $3 million.

You're the kind of sucker those card-guys on the street in Manhattan love.

Anonymous said...

"Officials said the extra bays MAY make it possible to coordinate the repairs and maintenance of fire vehicles with the public works garage across the street. There’s a CHANCE for more coordination and efficiency in the operation, they said."

Very expensive lottery ticket they're selling at City Hall!
Meanwhile my taxes are rising, and they're saying they are going to lay off folks.
So if the city has the same or lesser number of mechanics to repair the fire trucks, how is this efficiency to be achieved just because they're building an larger expensive structure?
Were saving money....bull.

They're spending more, and taxing more.
I agree with the other guy:
fix the darn pot holes so the residents don't ruin their tires and suspensions.
That's true public efficiency, eh?

City Hall and their over the top big projects from La La Land being promoted as efficieny and conservation of money?

And in a full-blown recession?

Makes you want to kick the rascals in their butts, and fire a few more un-named generic "officials" come next election.

Anonymous said...

the taxpayer money coming from washington has soooooo many strings attached to it , you can't do what is actually needed with your own cash .

Obama bin Biden ..... Debt to America

Anonymous said...

8:41

There are many other areas that should be CUT first.
Not adequately maintaining roads is just putting off the expenditure, and at a higher price.
We are paying now (look at our roads, potholes and all), for the Nicastro approach to getting reelected.
Now Ward has picked up on that, and we will pay more in the future.

Our biggest expense item is personnel: what had Ward done in that area?????

Anonymous said...

10:56 AM

Unfortunately, both budget cuts and reduction in personnel may be necessary during this recession. You have to give Ward credit for trying to trim the budget before putting some city employees in the unemployment line.

Anonymous said...

Don't look to layoff personnel or cut wages if the City can still afford these dumb projects.

Anonymous said...

The FD goes to less than 3,000 calls a year -- an average of 8 calls per day for the whole city!! There are 5 houses in the City. I saw on the news the other night that Meriden is closing one to save money. How about closing a firehouse instead of building a new one?

Anonymous said...

12:10

Is the city in the business of beingthe court of last resort?

Are we a welfare city?

Are we on the verge of Socialism?

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

April 11, 2009 12:54 PM:

Good idea. I'll bet that fire-house was built with New Departure in mind anyway.

And the idiots at city hall want to build another fire house in the south west corner as well.

Anonymous said...

The mayor and city council need to stop the spending.
The city is talking about layoffs and concessions so they can continue spending.Where is the so called fiscal conservative councilman Cockayne? That's right he only has an opinion when it is a union bashing issue....and he has the nerve to say he is pro-taxpayer and not anti-union.

JW said...

"Is the city in the business of beingthe court of last resort?

Are we a welfare city?

Are we on the verge of Socialism?"

"They're spending more, and taxing more."


As long as the community continues to elect Democrats, the answer is overwhelmingly YES.... How can anyone of you be so naive after so many years? Democrats spending and taxing. Did you think this 'wasn't' their modus operandi?........LMAO....

JW said...

"The mayor and city council need to stop the spending.
The city is talking about layoffs and concessions so they can continue spending."


If they have money for all of the spending projects, there really isn't a need for layoffs and concessions is there? STOP SPENDING FIRST before you threaten to lay local citizens off from their job(s)....

Anonymous said...

Yeah, let's build two new schools, a new firehouse, and what else? Hmmmm...anybody want to mortgage our children's future for another silly new project?

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

What happened to the study that was done, reviewing all 5 firehouse?

We pay big bucks and Ward ignores the findings.

Makes no sense to me.

Anonymous said...

Earth to 3:33 p.m.: The project WILL NOT go through unless they are able to get the money from the stimulus plan so we as citizens do not have to worry about dishing out anything. They will try to put it in as a "shovel ready" project, which makes it more of a chance that they will get the money. Stop acting like City Hall will be doing this no matter what. In this economy they know better. This is just another political bashing session. Obviously it's harder to spread the truth than it is to spread lies.

Anonymous said...

Under Obama socialism we will be taxed more so that cities can build unnecessary buildings? Is that just because "he can and he will"? Well, you got change.

Anonymous said...

"The project WILL NOT go through unless they are able to get the money from the stimulus plan..."

True but as Steve points out, the stimulus plan money only covers 80% of the tab...Bristol will have to spend its' own money to cover the other 20%...currently estimated at a whopping $800,000. In these times the City has no business spending that kind of coin.

JW said...

To AnonymousWestConnStudent....

Its not 'paying' for the fire department that any of us have a problem. Its obviously a necessary service. What we object to is proposing updates that may or may not save money. Who knows if it will?

Im sure your parent's would be super proud of the statement (hope someone's house burns down) you made. I know you don't hope that happens, but thats a very poor expression to use.

Just remember:
You can pay for school but you can't buy class...

Anonymous said...

Bristol's firehouses are old and very outdated. Many of you comment here with no experience.

Newer apparatus doesn't fit in the existing stations, and Bristol has already spent money to enlarge the bay doors simply to get Tower 1 to fit in HQ.

Headquarters is very cramped and Support 1 even has to respond from the back of the station. We need a new Station 4 so that the maintenance bay can be moved out of headquarters, thereby making enough room for the current apparatus to fit at headquarters.

All of the other stations around town are on limited land area. They simply don't have the potential that Station 4 has.

john reek said...

Wow, slinging arrows at the BFD who would have thought it could come to this?
The last poster should be read first trucks are now bigger they carry more vital equipment to save your house.
Cut this cut that just keep the same level of professionalism.
That will not happen.
As to the possible firehouse closing in meriden that particular house is a very busy one and a personal friend who works there is in danger of losing his job on any given day. So I do know what im talking about. We must support the fire dept the next house could be yours.