1. Prescott School_This would be a remodeling of, and addition to, the current building.

2.  Station Avenue_This would be new construction  on surplus land coordinated with the GELD’s initiative to build a new Electric Light Department headquarters.

3.  Lawrence Homestead Trust_This location is off of Farmers’ Row in the field abutting the Police and EMS building.  It would be located in the northeast corner of the field adjacent to the Public Safety building.

Additional sites that come to the attention of the Board of Selectmen will be evaluated individually by the Board.

A:            The Committee is appointed by the Town Manager.  It currently has 7 members:

                Halsey Platt_Resident_Construction Expertise

                Joseph Bosselait_Fire Chief_Fire and EMS Expertise

                Val Prest_Resident_Site and Structural Engineering Expertise

                Susan Daly_Resident and Groton Fire Fighter_Fire and EMS Expertise

                Mike Bouchard_Resident and Town Clerk_Construction and Public Meeting Expertise (Committee Clerk)

                Jeremy Januskiewicz_Resident and Ayer Fire Fighter_Fire Fighting Expertise (Vice Chair)

                Jack Petropoulos_Resident_Product Management Expertise (Chair)

A: The town website www.townofgroton.org has a section for the Central Fire Station with a link under it to take users to a page that has links to all of the documents, meeting agendas, evaluations etc that have been done as part of this process.

You can submit questions via email to fireFAQ@townofgroton.org .  Those questions will be answered here on this FAQ.  Alternatively you can send questions to the Groton Board of Selectmen and request a written copy of the FAQs.

Each meeting is summarized and posted to:

·         Lowell Sun

·         Groton Landmark

·          Groton Herald

·         Groton Cable

·         Groton Line

·         Selectmen

·         Town Website

Weekly public meetings are held on Mondays at 4:30 PM and on Fridays at 10:00 AM at Town Hall.  Check the posted agendas as times may occasionally shift.

A number of Community meetings will be scheduled.  The first is scheduled for Wednesday March 21 at 7:00 PM at Town Hall.

Update:  Based upon the evaluation described below, there is no practical difference in response time between the 3 proposed sites.  In addition, the response time study determined that the optimal location for a fire station is almost exactly in the middle of the 3 locations being considered by the Committee.

A:            We have retained Dore and Whittier http://www.doreandwhittier.com/ to lead the Lawrence Homestead Trust site evaluation and to prepare preliminary building plans for purposes of cost estimation of a suitably sized station on that site.  Dore and Whittier have extensive experience in the design and construction management of Public Safety buildings.  They have supplemented this experience by hiring CR Design http://www.colerussell.com/ who are among the country’s top Fire Station design firms.  Together they bring top tier experience in fire station programming and design.  Travis Miller, a consultant with expertise in response time analysis has been hired by Dore and Whittier to provide a thorough response time analysis.

The GELD property on Station Ave has been thoroughly surveyed by Places, Inc. with corrections to initial wetlands issues that were erroneously introduced at the time that the site was proposed at the last Town Meeting.  A provisional outline of a fire station has been provided by (McGuire Associates) so that we can be sure that an adequately sized structure will fit on that site.   At this time we have sufficient information about the site development issues in order to accurately evaluate the GELD property.   

The Prescott school has been evaluated by (Bargmann Hendrie & Archetype)  to determine the structural and site requirements that would allow its use as a Fire Station.  By the end of March we will have a report from BH+A architects showing internal room layouts, the size of the apparatus bay addition, and the costs to build/renovate, and do the site work for Prescott if it is to be used as a central fire station.

Update:  The current concept is for a station that contains a total of 18,550 of program and circulation space.  It was derived using the process described below:

Oringinal A:      We do not yet know.  As part of their charge the Architectural firm of Dore & Whittier is evaluating two separate and distinct questions about 
            the size of the Fire/EMS building:

1.       What does the Fire and EMS Department have and what does it need.  This is an evaluation of the current and future needs of the Central fire station.  They are considering such items as apparatus, parking, specialty equipment, staffing facilities such as bunks (if needed) and training.

2.       What size building will fit on the Lawrence Homestead site and what would it look like.  They are considering design constraints to assure that the facility is in keeping with the location and site constraints such as (wetlands, sight lines, utilities).

D&W will be working with the Fire Department to anticipate and account for growth requirements driven by such things as population growth and changes in the types of emergency response.  Initial designs and subsequent versions will be posted on this site as they become available.  We should begin to see these by mid April.

Update:  As of April 6 we have ranges for each of the sites:

§  Lawrence Homestead Trust:       $6.9M to $7.5M (does not include land cost)

§  Station Avenue:                                               $7.4M to $8.0 M

§  Prescott:                                              $8M to $9M

A:  This is a question for the Board of Selectmen to answer.  It is true that the new Station MAY contain some features that are not present in our current facilities such as bunk facilities, decontamination rooms, training facilities etc.  These features are being reviewed as part of our Needs Analysis by Dore and Whittier. The presence of these features does not drive department size.  They simply allow our department to function more effectively.  For instance having bunks would allow fire fighters who are responding to ongoing emergencies such as we encountered in the Halloween storm, to remain on site and available while catching some rest between calls.  Department size will be driven by community need.  Training features built in to the building provide training opportunities on site rather than requiring the coordination of larger scale off site exercises in the name of efficiency.   The Building size will serve the Department in meeting that need.

Our charge is to build a station that will serve the town well for 50 years or more. The current central station has been in use for more than 75 years.  As we imagine and try to project the Town of Groton’s fire safety needs in the year 2050, we can picture a number of likely scenarios.  Ultimately, the town (through town meeting) will decide for itself what fire fighter and EMS services it wants and whether to increase the size of the department. 

A:  The current Center Fire Station has 8,136 square feet.  It is important to understand the total square footage that is currently used by the Fire and EMS services.  The current station is unfit to house the Fire and EMS administrative functions.  These operations are carried out at the Public Safety Building and occupy 3131 square feet.  In addition, the current Public Safety Building houses our 2 ambulances in bays which occupy 2352 square feet.  The total square footage now used by our Fire and EMS equipment and administration is 779 square feet.  These figures do not include common areas (vestibules, bathrooms, kitchens etc.) , circulation (hallways, stairs, elevators) or other contributors to size such as wall thickness.  Nor do they include areas that are currently lacking in our current facilities such as bunks, dayrooms and most importantly, modern sized bays that can facilitate the efficient maintenance and operation of modern equipment.  To offer a point of reverence, the recently built Ayer Center Fire Station contains over 21,000 square feet of space including a 4 double depth bay design that is similar to our current concept.

A.  This is a reasonable question as there is a 19 second difference in the “Average Response Time” between the Prescott location and the LHT location.  But the Average Response Time measure is only one of 3 measures that we looked at.  There are other measures such as:  “What is the best location if we want to reach the largest % of calls within 4 minutes?” or: What is the best location if we want to reach the largest % of calls within 8 minutes?”  The Prescott site would be the best site for a  4 minute response time, and the LHT site is the location if we want to assure that we can reach the highest number of calls within 8 minutes.  Both are reasonable numbers, and neither  serves to make one the preferred location.  Two more factors come in to play here:

1)      We asked our Consultant (Travis Miller of Criterion Associates) if the move to the south end of the field made a significant difference in the model’s outcome and he responded:

Per your call, we took a look at the impact of shifting the site to the other side of the property on Farmer's Row and we can tell you that there is no discernible impact on response times whatsoever.

Regards,

Travis Miller

President

Criterion Associates, LLC

16 Balmoral St, Suite 11

2)      We need to note that, even if there is a difference in “en route” response time between the Prescott site and the LHT site, the benefit of that difference may be removed in whole or in part, by the “in building” response time that we would incur if we sited the station in the less operationally efficient building design that would result from the use of the Prescott school as the basis for our station.

A: The work that went in to sizing the proposal at Sacred Heart did not have the advantage of industry expertise such as Dore and Whittier and C&R Architects operating under a paid contract to provide a comprehensive needs assessment.  The resulting square footage was then plotted into a footprint that would provide an optimal Fire Station Program.  This program would have had difficulty fitting on the Sacred Heart site.  Had we bought the church site we would have had to either: Shrunk the overall # of square feet or built a full 2 or 2 ½ story structure.  Both of these would have been significant compromises in the Optimal Program that we have developed for the Lawrence Homestead Trust (LHT) site.  In the end, the vote at the last Town Meeting served the community well, demonstrating the value of a well informed public that demands a thorough process.  This has been a valuable lesson for the town.

A:  The change happened in late March or early April as the LHT was concerned about the effect of placing the station on the north east location.  The change happened in public meetings.  It was described in Meeting Minutes and Summaries that were distributed regularly and posted on the town’s site.  It was covered in local papers.  Lastly the change was discussed in a publicized public meeting held at 7:00 PM at town hall on April 4, 2012.  That presentation is available on the town website. 

We have heard, a very reasonable request for more time for the community to learn about the proposal.  After discussing this at length and soliciting community input, the Committee determined to move ahead with our support for bringing this forward at Town Meeting.  There have been an enormous number of meetings, publications and walk throughs to try to inform the public about this initiative.  We did not feel that delaying the Article at Town Meeting would add signifacantly to the public’s understanding.  We did consider that a delay would add project costs at the rate of 1.5% for every 6 months of delay.  However we did determine to do the following: 

1.       A copy of the Report to the Board of Selectmen is being mailed to every household in Groton. 

2.       An additional walk through of the Ayer Fire Station is being planned for Saturday April 28^th at 10AM. 

Lastly, should members of the community be so inclined, they may certainly move to delay the vote and ask Town Meeting to weigh in on the need for more time.

A:  That possibility was raised at the most recent Community Meeting.  We will explore the opportunity and the impact on the operation of both GELD and the Center Fire Station.

A:  There are 3 locations under consideration:

1.       Prescott School_This would be a remodeling of, and addition to, the current building.

2.       Station Avenue_This would be new construction  on surplus land coordinated with the GELD’s initiative to build a new Electric Light          
          Department headquarters.

3.       Lawrence Homestead Trust_This location is off of Farmers’ Row in the field abutting the Police and EMS building.  It would be located in the northeast
          corner of the field adjacent to the Public Safety building.

Additional sites that come to the attention of the Board of Selectmen will be evaluated individually by the Board.