$1.5 Million Beverly Central Fire Station Funds Approved: City Council

BEVERLY, MA — Renovations on a new HVAC system, electrical upgrades, roof replacement, doors, windows and other exterior brickwork at the Central Fire Station will soon begin after the Beverly City Council on Monday night unanimously approved $1.5 million in funding for long-delayed work on the half-century-old firehouse.

"I can't tell you how excited we are about moving forward with this project," Beverly Fire Chief Peter O'Connor said. "The bottom line is that my folks show up to work every day with the conditions that the building is right now and they take care of that building every day. They clean in the morning, eat, work, sleep, work, eat again. They deserve to have a nice, modern building and I'm really looking forward to seeing that come to fruition.

"We've been talking about it for a long time."

Beverly Director of Engineering Michael Collins said that the exterior renovations, and ensuing interior renovations that are set to include new bathroom facilities, will significantly upgrade the facility built in 1954 without air conditioning and with limited room for electrical upgrades.

"If you've been in this firehouse it doesn't take long to figure out that really we could use a new firehouse," Collins said. "That would be ideal. If we had a new firehouse it would be probably two to three times the size of this current one. That's really not in the cards here. We don't have the land, we don't have the money, it's just not going to happen.

"We're going to do the best we can. But that's going to be a series of compromises to make it all work within the footprint that we have, the budget that we have and around a live firehouse to make sure that we don't compromise operations."

Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill requested that with the Council's approval, Councilors also call for a vote to immediately deny reconsideration so that the work can begin promptly.

"We're ready to sign the contract," Cahill said, "for the envelope work, for the roof, for the extra masonry work that's needed, for the windows. ... How quickly will this be spent? The goal is to be spending the lion's share of it immediately and on the electrical/HVAC as soon as possible."

Cahill said the city will remain committed to the City Council's requests for regular updates on the status of all capital projects, including the fire station work.

In a letter to the City Council late last month, Cahill said the intention is for the work to be funded using so-called "free cash" — or annual city surpluses — but since free cash is not certified by the state until late fall, a "loan authorization" approval is necessary to enter into an agreement with the contractor to begin work in a timely fashion.

The $1.5 million would bring the money dedicated toward the renovation to $2.75 million, including previously allocated funds.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)