Question 1

What is the project?

Accepted Answer

The Town of Abington has two fire stations currently in operation: Headquarters is located at 1040 Bedford Street, and Station 2 is located at 5 Rockland Street. Both facilities are lacking in room for personnel, vehicle and storage space. The Town of Abington has hired an Architectural firm to perform a facility study and provide the Town with design services for a new consolidated fire station.

Question 2

Why is a new fire facility needed?

Accepted Answer

1040 Bedford Street serves as the Headquarters Fire Station, and houses the administrative offices, Fire Prevention, four firefighter/paramedics, and several fire apparatus. This station was built in 1964, with no additions or major renovations. The ongoing widening of Route 18 by MassDOT has caused an increase in traffic which hampers the ability of emergency fire apparatus coming and going from this location, as well as an impending reduction of available parking areas for the fire apparatus once the road becomes wider. 
5 Rockland Street is a smaller sub-fire station, housing two firefighter/paramedics and fire apparatus. This station was built in 1973 and has chronic heating and air quality issues. The property is rather small and may not allow for any additional major renovations. 
Neither fire station has separate facilities for restrooms, showers or living areas, for both employees and the general public. Neither location has separate emergency medical treatment areas for walk-in patients, dedicated decontamination areas, or ventilated personal protective equipment clothing areas. Both fire stations have the fire apparatus and vehicles located immediately adjacent to the office and living areas, with no airlocks for separation. Both fire stations are lacking in room for personnel, vehicle and storage space. 
A recently decommissioned Town elementary school property located at 171 Adams Street may be considered as a potential location for a combined fire department single facility. 
An additional idea would be to explore the possibility of including two smaller Town departments into a fire station facility, the Abington Board of Health and Building Department, as all three departments currently work closely, and anticipate more cohesiveness in the future as the Town continues to grow. This would make the fire station facility a true community project, and allow for additional office space at Town Hall should these departments become incorporated into a new building.

Question 3

Why not just renovate the existing facility / facilities?

Accepted Answer

The existing facilities are far passed their life expectancy and would need to be completely renovated to meet or exceed today’s national standards. Both existing sites are limited by size to meet the existing needs and program of the Department and renovations of the deteriorated structures are not practical. The sites also do not provide the maximum ability to cover the Town in an adequate response time period. These site limitations to both stations reduce the possibility of improvement by renovation or additions. Likewise, site concerns remove the possibility of construction on either of the existing sites. It is much more cost effective to design a building for its specific purpose in mind than to convert an existing building, specifically for the program.

Question 4

What site(s) are being examined?

Accepted Answer

With help from the existing department planning committee, Kaestle Boos Architects put together a database of all Town-owned properties, as well as sites for sale or known to be available. This database was reduced after a review of size, or other site development restrictions. After further review and analysis of site conditions and other development restrictions, that list was reduced down to 2. These 2 final sites were analyzed and scored according to response time, cost of development, visibility and other factors.

Question 5

Has a site been proposed yet?

Accepted Answer

Currently there are two (2) proposed locations. The first proposed location is along Gliniewicz Way across from the new Middle/High School. The 6-acre site is currently privately owned and would require access through a wooded area that is currently managed by the Abington Housing Authority. The site is centrally located which is a major key criteria of being able to reach the most people in town within an eight-minute response time standard. The parcel, due to its size and useable area, would allow for building space that could fit a station that meets the required program design and also incorporate training facilities on site and adequately store all the equipment and program needs of the department.   The second proposed site location is the existing North School Site which is located within a triangle created by Adams, Birch & Plymouth Streets. The 2.64 acre site and abandoned school includes parking lots and an old baseball field with chain link fence. The site is located near major town arteries which is a major key criteria of being able to reach the most people in town within an eight-minute response time standard. The parcel, due to its size and useable area, would allow for building space that could fit a station that meets the required program design.

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