AMHERST – Money to hire a designer for a fire station in South Amherst could be requested from Town Meeting this fall.
Peter Hechenbleikner, interim town manager, said Tuesday that the DPW/Fire Station Advisory Committee is authorizing the development of a so-called request for quotation in which he would write an advertisement that would solicit designers to submit bids to do design work on just the fire station.
“By the end of August they will have a recommendation from the town manager for a cost to hire a designer,” Hechenbleikner said.
The committee is charged with both studying how to bring a fire station to South Amherst and how to renovate or build a new headquarters for the Department of Public Works.
As the basis of its work, the committee is using a recent DPW study, presented to the Select Board in March, and a decade-old fire station study.
The DPW study projected costs between $37.06 million and $38.26 million to construct a building with at least 79,129 square feet, and identified three sites where it could be located: a vacant parcel on Old Farm Road, the Matuszko Trucking site on Ball Lane and the current Fort River School, 70 South East St.
By fall 2019, Fort River School could close, with students moving to the current Wildwood site, where two elementary schools, each serving up to 375 students, would be co-located.
The 2006 fire station study projected costs of a new building at $11 million, though one idea being floated is to have the fire station move to the current site of the DPW on South Pleasant Street.
Hechenbleikner said a new fire station needs to be located south of town center to better serve residents, and the DPW headquarters fits the bill.
Meanwhile, Hechenbleikner is moving forward with hiring an independent consultant to complete a fire staffing and deployment study.
He said this study will produce information about whether the 44 firefighter/paramedics are sufficient staffing for serving Amherst and the four surrounding towns that receive ambulance service. However, he added that the study will not affect the design for a new fire station.
Hechenbleikner said a new fire station would have flexibility for adding staff, but mostly for ensuring there is enough room for fire trucks and ambulances.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
