AMHERST — All Amherst Fire Department operations will be located at the North Fire Station starting Monday as the Central Station closes for a month to accommodate ongoing construction work, some of which is related to the neighboring Jones Library project.
With new drainage pipes needed for the expanded and renovated library, the main parking lot at the downtown station, at 68 North Pleasant St., will be dug up. At the same time, new underground utility lines for the fire station will improve electrical service at the 1928 building.
Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren said last week that all vehicles, including engines and ambulances, and the entirety of the firefighting staff, will be switched to the north site at 603 East Pleasant St.
The ambulances will be prioritized for available inside space at that 51-year-old building, with some of the fire engines and other apparatuses being kept outdoors in the parking lot.
Stromgren said all phone numbers will remain the same and the public can still call 911 for emergencies.
The station’s closure, which will run until June 27, was postponed until after the spring semester at local colleges ended and commencement season was over, with generally fewer emergency calls to handle.
There have only been a few times when operations weren’t at the Central Fire Station, such as when there was a resurfacing in front of the bays at the 1928 building, and the department relocated for two days, and when the Celebrate Amherst Block Party that turns that section of North Pleasant Street into a pedestrian mall each September.
The town has plans for a new fire station south of downtown, though when that will be built and where it will be located are uncertain.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said this work will improve the fire department building and for whatever future uses are in if and when it is vacated by the town.
Fontaine Brothers and Gagliarducci Construction will be doing the construction work.
