Article 13 - Fire Station Design

Question:  I see once again that the town wants to spend a fair amount of money to start work on conception/plans, etc. for a new fire station from scratch when I thought I and several others had convinced town management a year or two ago to instead seek info from other towns of roughly comparable population that had build new stations as a first action. I could see needing to start from scratch if you had a challenging site on which to build but the Elm Street site is pretty flat and should accommodate existing designs. Why are we asking for money to do something when useful information might be available from other towns for free?

 Please see photo and info on these two stations built by the same company (Eckman Construction in Bedford NH, 623-1713): Litchfield and Pelham. Both towns are a little more populous than P, but I'd think it would be fairly easy to scale down a bit from one of their designs if they include too many bays. A very nice looking station was also built in Warner NH. Other somewhat recent ones are Stratham and  North Conway. The website that mentions the North Conway station also has some intriguing tangential uses for the station that might be adaptable to Peterborough. 

 Here is a link to a website that has info about fire stations throughout NH, but not sure how much specific info is provided: https://www.cmdgroup.com/building-types/fire-stations/new-hampshire/projects/

 - Bill Chatfield  Old Dublin Road

Answer: 

It has been over 15 years since a complete programmatic study and community discussion has been conducted around the current and future needs of Peterborough Fire & Rescue. The process that we have outlined to address the new building is to first determine the town’s needs and convert that into a physical layout. Once that process is completed we may very well be able to utilize existing plans from another project however the lot on Elm Street presents some constraints, including setback from wetlands, design around the community center that incorporates the safety of their patrons, and the potential to incorporate the old National Guard garage that is on the site. Combined with the intent is to lay out a site plan that will allow for future incorporation of the police station will require significant site engineering. An engineer or architect will also be needed to provide the town with current cost estimates for the design.

The Town’s administrative staff, members of the CIP Committee, Budget Committee, Select Board and ultimately the voters at a future Town Meeting, will need to have a design with cost estimates in order to make informed decisions about a new public safety building.  Given the constraints and unique elements that Chief Walker laid out above, the plans and cost estimates from a recent build in another community would not be adequate to give all the decision makers what they need to make an informed decision on the project.

Question: In response to Bill Chatfield's question, the answer includes the following statement: "Combined with the intent is to lay out a site plan that will allow for future incorporation of the police station [and?] will require significant site engineering." When was the decision made that the police department would be incorporated with the fire department at the Elm St site and who made this decision? I know there were prior discussions about having a joint facility for the fire and police departments, but I don't recall a final decision. So is this Article solely for the Fire Station Design or is the design for a new Police Station being included in these costs?

 -Loretta Laurenitis, Four Winds Farm Road

Answer: The article seeks to raise the funds necessary to develop a conceptual design, preliminary cost estimate and construction drawings for a new Fire Station.  The intent is to design the facility in such a way to allow for the future colocation of the Police Station, but not to design or construct a new Police Station at this time.  Colocation of the Fire Department and Police Department has been central in the planning process for over fifteen years. 

Fire Station Design Presentation An informational presentation on the Fire Station Project