The Chilmark Fire Department has begun to move out of its fire station on Menemsha Cross Road ahead of the demolition of the building. Fire Chief Jeremy Bradshaw told Chilmark selectmen Tuesday night the transition to the North Road Fire Station has made for “cramped” conditions there, but he said, “We’ll make it work.”
The fire station will be razed to make way for a new station. A headquarters for Tri-Town Ambulance is also in the works as part of the same overall project. That building will be situated on a parcel adjacent to town hall.
Bradshaw said the department’s brush breaker will be stored at the DCR building in the Manuel Correllus State Forest, and trucks 133 and 122 will be at the North Road station. Truck 123, a fast attack and rescue truck the department acquired in the spring, does not yet have a home for the winter, Bradshaw said.
If all goes according to plan, Bradshaw later told The Times, asbestos will be removed from the fire station in June, the building will be razed in July, and construction will commence in October.
Under the tutelage of Menemsha resident Scott McDowell, the Chilmark firefighters will begin drone training this spring, Bradshaw told the board.
“The fire department and police department will be able to utilize the drones for search-rescue and other applications,” he said.
In other business, Vineyard Conservation Society staffer Samantha Look pitched a nonbinding prohibition article for polystyrene.
Look described polystyrene as environmentally detrimental and “not readily recyclable.”
Chairman Warren Doty thanked Look for coming, and told her the board viewed the article as a positive step. He did not, however, bring the article to a vote. Selectman Jim Malkin later told The Times the board will review the warrant article with the finance committee when the annual warrant is assembled.
the warrant article with the finance committee when the annual warrant is assembled.
