There’s no telling where the town will prioritize it, but Fire Chief Jim Blanchfield made it clear on Wednesday, Jan. 7, that his department needs significant space and facilities upgrades at the current Fire Department headquarters by Town Hall.
Blanchfield gave a presentation to the Wilton Capital Planning Committee, which is in the process of reviewing a range of high-cost projects to ultimately determine recommendations it will make to the Board of Selectmen regarding which items it believes should be prioritized for bonding.
While the WCPC continues to experience some disagreement and confusion over the exact criteria for its recommendations, Blanchfield qualified that his department’s space needs are clear.
“Storage issues, we have locker room issues, we have training space issues … lots of different issues,” Blanchfield said, noting that satellite Fire Station 2 was not given any consideration in regard to an assessment evaluation that was originally conducted almost two years ago.
The town is estimating that as a package deal, renovations to the current structure as well as an addition of close to 5,000 square feet will cost $5,863,990, with $3.4 million of that figure based on a June 12, 2024, estimate for an addition made by the architectural firm of Marx Okubo Associates, Inc., based in White Plains, N.Y.
Should the town just exclusively embark on the building renovations, the $2.5 million estimate for those will likely increase in the process.
“What we focused on were current operations, future operations, space deficiencies that we have presently, any growth needs that we might see, sustainability issues … and also community space,” Blanchfield said.
It’s not a full knock down, he said, but a renovation that ideally will include adding a wing on the west side of the building. This, he emphasized, was what was needed for current operations and would likely sustain the department for what he said was the next 40 years.
“We don’t have enough room presently to train at the firehouse,” he explained, with training necessitating some proximity to fire vehicles and equipment, rather than being something they can do offsite.
“We don’t have enough space for materials we need to support the community,” Blanchfield said, noting that a third large outdoor container will soon join two others currently on the site being used for storage purposes.
Blanchfield said that the 1982 building was never equipped for a proper I.T. area, which is another need, as their equipment is not kept in the most prime location for their needs.
“When this building was built it was not a co-ed workforce,” he added. “I don’t mean to harp on that, but it wasn’t and we have challenges in respect to that. It’s fantastic, but the town needs to look at that.”
“Everything I’m talking about is present operations. We don’t have enough space for present operations,” Blanchfield said.
Jeff Pardo, assistant director of the Department of Public Works, said that while the cost estimate is updated, there are some other costs not included — in particular putting trailers on site in order to house the firefighters, who will be displaced during the work.
“If we do a major renovation and addition, I have to kick all of those men out of the building, so I have to rent trailers so they have a place to sleep,” he said.
DPW Director Frank Smeriglio said that, regardless of adding space, the current building still needs significant work.
“You have to start doing something to the building, whether it’s bondable or whether it’s capital operating budget,” Smeriglio said.
Pardo said that the renovations center on the windows, the roof, slabs, exterior concrete work.
“The major items are really exterior,” he said.
“But you’re not solving any of those [space] issues,” Pardo said. “You’re just solving existing building issues, improving the envelope.”
“I would just say that there is a cost savings if you sell all this work to an architect, an engineer, all at once, and the [general contractor] is doing all the work all together, rather than making it two separate projects,” he said.
“There is a cost savings to lumping all that work together,” he said.