Selectmen Consider New Site for Fire Station 2

The Burlington Board of Selectmen discussed placing Fire Station 2 in the "Clark & Reid" site originally considered for a new Department of Public Works and Recreation Department building.

The issue came up while discussing warrant articles for the upcoming May 13 Town Meeting. Town Administrator John Petrin said there will be an article allowing the town to use already-allocated funds for a due diligence study related to the purchase of the property.

In the January, 2012 Town Meeting, members voted to approve up to $80,000 to fund a due diligence study for two properties for the DPW and Recreation Department.

The property in question is located off the corner of Middlesex Turnpike and Meadow Road (see map at right). The site is actually two parcels, one that is 1-acre and another that is 3.4-acres, with two different owners. Then Town Administrator Robert Mercier said both owners are interested in making a deal with the town for a sale. The larger parcel was previously owned by Clark & Reid, a moving company, and is the property currently under consideration for Fire Station 2.

The current Fire Station 2 location on Terrace Hall Avenue is widely considered inadequate. The building is old and the site is not large enough for training purposes. Also, Fire Chief Steven Yetman said the location is not ideal in terms of response times for the Burlington Mall and Middlesex Commons, two locations with lots of calls.

Petrin said at the meeting on Monday the Terrace Hall Avenue location is also next to wetlands, which makes it less ideal as a location.

Petrin also said the Meadow Road location is not ideal for a Department of Public Works location.

"We are asking Town Meeting is to approve a warrant article requesting we change the $77,000 already appropriated for the Meadow Road site to allow it to be for Fire Department purposes as well," Petrin said.

Petrin said at this time they are not requesting funds to purchase the site.

The estimated cost of a new fire station is $6.5 million and, if they went with the Clark & Reid site, the estimated cost of the land purchase is $2 million.

Vice Chairman of the Board Michael Runyan said he didn't think the Meadow Road location would be a good site for the fire station.

"I don’t like the site for any purpose," he said. "The site is too hidden. People come walk to the station with problems and this location is too hard to find. You can't see it from Middlesex Turnpike." 

Petrin said the site is not hidden and signs could be used to direct people to the station. He also said that there are very few options because Middlesex Turnpike is built-up and there are not many parcels up for sale.

Yetman said the Meadow Road location would be better than the Terrace Hall Avenue location.

"Yes, it is better for response time," he said to a question on whether the site would be an improvement. "It has more space. Our needs going forward now and in the foreseeable future are a new station with an ambulance in that side of town. Probably going to need to move a truck over there as well, so will need a 3-bay station."

Assistant Chief Michael Patterson agreed. He said the site wasn't perfect but would be an improvement.

"We've discussed this a lot," he said. "We don’t think it’s in our best interest to build a new station at the current site. Our job is all about response times so that's very important. Is it the best location? Probably not, but we have very limited options. This does get us closer to our target areas – The Burlington Mall, Northwest Park, etc. We feel it is a better location than the current one."

Patterson also said the Meadow Road location would be large enough to conduct training exercises, something that is important to keep personnel skills up to date.

"We talk about this on a daily basis," Patterson added. "I think we have two options, one is to purchase the Clark & Reid site and second is to stay where we are, but we don’t feel that’s a good option."