HomeMy WebLinkAbout1958-03-nd-AFSC-min.pdf Report of the Additional Fire Station Committee
This report submitted to the Annual Town Meeting, Town
of Lexington, Massachusetts, March 1958, has been prepared under
the authority of the following vote adopted At the 1957 Annual
Town Meeting.
VOTED: To accept the report of the Additional Fire
Station Committee as a report of progress, the
Committee to continue its study and to include
consideration of other possible locations for
any additional fire station and to report to a
subsequent Town Meeting, but not later than the
1958 Annual Town Meeting.
The additional Fire Station Committee was created by the mellow-
ing vote adopted at the 1956 Annual Town Meeting
VOTED To create an Additional Fire Station Committee
consisting of one member of the Board of Select-
men, one member of the Planning Board, one member
of the Appropriation Committee and two members
of the Board of Fire Commissioners, the members
to be designated by the Chairman of the respective
Board or Committee, to review the recommendation
of the Board of Fire Commissioners that the Town
construct an additional fire station on the
parcel of land now owned by the Town that is
situated on Marrett *pad near the reservoir and
to report to the 1957 Annual Town Meeting.
The Committee makes the following recommendations
1. That the Board of Selectmen, after consultation with
the Board of Fire Commissioners, lay out a lot as a site for an
additional fire station on land now owned by the town on the
Northeasterly side of Marrett Road and Southeasterly of the
reservoir.
2. That the town defer the erection of an additional
fire station on the site recommended above until a later date.
Recommendation 1
The Committee recommends the above site on Marrett Road
as a location for a future fire station for the following
reasons
1. A station in the general area of the recommended
site will be necessary at some time in the future in
order to provide reasonably quick response to fires
in the outlying southerly section of the town, par-
ticularly the area south of Marrett Road between
Route 128 and Waltham Street.
2. The two existing stations, Central and East Lexington,
are so located that reasonably quick response can be
made from these stations to fires in outlying sections
of the town other than the southorty sec:tintl.
3. An additional fire station located in a different
section of the town would not solve the future
need of a station in the southerly section and
thus would necessitate a four-station instead of a
three-station fire housing program.
Li . The site recommended abuts a straight section
of Marrett Road midway between the curves in
Marrett Road at the Spring Street and Middle Street
intersections and thus provides better sight distance
than if a station should be located at either of
these intersections.
5. Direct access to Prospect Hill Via Outlook Drive
can be provided from the site recommended without
apparatus having to enter Marrett Road.
6. The town owns the land comprising the site recommended.
In recommending the site on Marrett Road, the Committee is con-
curring in previous recommendations that a third fire station be
located in the Marrett Road area made by the following
Present Board of Fire Commissioners
New England Fire Insurance Rating Association
The 19)1)1 Board of Selectmen, Planning Board,
Appropriation Committee and Beard of Fire Engineers
(See Report On Fire Department Housing Program,
June 1914
After studying the present and anticipated future develop-
ment trends of the town and reviewing prior recommendations, your
Committee finds no justificati,n it departing from the prior
recommendations as to site location f r an additional station In
19%14, when the town voted to locate the Central Fire Statim on
Bedford Street, it embarked on a multiple fire station _program
for the town. Under this typo of pr, gram, the iocati 'n of stations
determines the number of stations which will be required to ade-
quately serve a community. The program as recommended in the a-
bove June 19)111 Report On Fire Department Housing Program called
far a maximum of three statins to complete the fire-stati n
needs of the town. When that Report was made, the town had under
consideration the crnstructim of the two existing fire stations
and they were built n the sites recommended in the Report H W-
ever, that Report specified the general area my f r the third
stati n as being "somewhere along NIarrett Road-either at the
corner of Spring Street or c rnor f Cary Avenue or corner of
Lincoln Street." Your Committee believes that extensive develop-
ment f the secti2n of the town south f Marrett Road and east of
Middle Street a w makes the reservoir area a m. re desirable loca-
tion for the third station than the Lincoln Street area.
The Committee has considered the possible future need for
additional stations in other areas of the town to serve )utlying
secti ,ns other than the s utherly section of the town. Mutual
aid arrangements with fire departments in Arlington, Bedford,
Waltham and Woburn sh uld provide reasonably quick reap nse
by these departments under n, rmal circumstances t fires in )ut-
lying secti ns which these towns abut. Proposed r- ad prrjects
now under c. nsiderati n, when completed, will improve the response
of Lexington fire apparatus in most cf the other ortaying seettrnns,
except the s ,utharly section. These projects are:
-2-
li Pleasant Street overpass at Route 2
2: Read from W,od Street to Bedford Street
3a Road from Eldred Street to Grove Street
(to be voted on at 1958 Town Meeting) .
Accordingly, your Committee believes that the three-station pro-
gram, with the third stati -n at the site recommended en Marrett
Read, will be adequate to meet the town' s future fire station
needs.
The Committee recommends that the Board of Selectmen lay
cut a lot fur the recommended site f )r the additional fire station
for the reason that the land which the Committee believes would
make the best site is not now defined by definite bounds. The
land area from which the 1 t should be laid out consists of two
parcels, the first being the eleventh parcel described in the
deed, dated December 10, 1895, under which the town acquired the
reservoir property from the LexinEtr n Water Compnany, and the
second being Lot 4 shown nn a plan, dated August 1, 19114, by L.
G. Brackett & C .'. , C E , acquired by the town by deed, dated
December 5, 1949, from Mathew A and Elizabeth G Macaulay. Al-
though Lot 4 is cf sufficient size f r a fire stati n site, part
of the l, t includes the area which w uld be used f r the c ,nnec-
tion of Outlook Drive to Marrett RO :d if such c -nnection should
be made in the future. The Committee recommends, therefore, that
the land necessary f..r the fire stati n situ should include only
that part cf Let 4 which w uld n 't be needed f r the Outlood Drive
connection and that the remaining land required be taken from
parcel eleven.
Recommendati m 2
The Committee' s recommendation that the additi nal fire
station not be built at the present time is based on the Committee ' s
_conclusion that the _town sh uld not incur flow the expense of
constructing the station and the resulting annual cost of operat-
ing the stati n when built . It is estimated that the stati n it-
self will cost 060, 000. In order to operate the stati n, it will
be necessary to add nine permc.nent firemen to the department' s
staff at an annual cost of approximately x,36, 000. and there will
be s -me additional annual clst f.,r maintenance , f the station.
The Committee has considered the question f whether the
additional fire stati nis needed at this time in -rder to main-
tain the present standards of fire pr• tecti )n being furnished
the town. Studies made by the committee f the factors in-
volved d not present the Committee with sufficient evidence to
warrant a recommendation that the station is needed now. Sub-
sequent studies by the B and f Fire C -mmissi ners c mbined with
actual experience f r no kr more additi nal years may present
additi nal evidence which will establish the stati :n' s need in
the near future.
Respectfully submitted,
Ralph H. Tucker C,-L.1
Harold L Roeder 4
Paul A Buckley :,_r;
William P. Fitzgerald tts-
Wilbur M. Jaquith, Chairman (AG -