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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE SPECIAL TOWN MEETING 2016 -5 SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 2016 -5.2 Land Purchase —171 -173 Bedford Street Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation $4,443,000 GF Debt Approve (7 -0) This article requests approval of the purchase of the land and building at 171 -173 Bedford Street and the appropriation of funds for the purchase and for related costs, to be raised through debt. This article refers to a single property identified as 171 Bedford Street in Town databases. The current owner refers to the same property as 173 Bedford Street. No other property in the Town uses either of these addresses. The use of two street numbers in the Article title is a matter of legal expediency. The immediate purpose of this request is to obtain "swing space" where the main fire department head- quarters station can be temporarily located during the demolition of the current fire station, located at 45 Bedford Street, and construction of a new fire station at that same location. The components of the request are as follows: Purchase Cost $4,300,000 Legal and Closing Costs $35,000 Plot Survey (estimate) $15,000 Environmental Study $8,000 Architectural and Engineering Study $85,000 Total $4,443,000 The purchase cost, legal and closing costs, and plot survey are all required for the Town to complete the acquisition of the property. The environmental study will ascertain whether the site has any environmen- tal contamination that might complicate its use by the Town. The architectural and engineering study will develop site modifications needed to create a swing space that supports fire station administration, pro- vides accommodations for fire fighters on duty and storage for equipment, and maintenance tasks. A New Headquarters Fire Station The inadequacies of the present main fire station have been documented in several previous studies going back to at least 1993, in particular in studies that were completed in 2011 and 2012. In addition to struc- tural problems of the floors in the garage area, which are inadequate to support the large weights of con- temporary fire engines, and seismic structural deficiencies, there are also persistent problems with humid- ity, water leaks, mold in the basement, and a host of other issues. The studies indicate that the station is much too small for the present -day needs of the Fire Department. The Donham & Sweeney report con- cludes that the station floor area should be approximately 25,000 square feet, rather than the 11,800 square feet of the existing building. This creates conditions that are not conducive to efficient operations. The 2011 and 2012 reports recommend the construction of a new facility rather than renovation and en- largement of the current facility. Those reports convince this Committee that demolition of the existing station followed by construction of a replacement facility is the wise course. This conclusion underlies the analyses and recommendations stated below. The Town has searched diligently for a new site to which the fire department headquarters could be relo- cated, but none that satisfies size, cost, and location requirements has materialized to date. While the pre- sent station site is not ideal because of a high water table and its limited area, it is nearly ideal in terms of location, with direct connections to a network of roads that provide reliable and flexible access to most of the town. These advantages, together with the absence of practical alternative sites, led to the decision to build a new station at the present site. 4