At their Tuesday meeting, the Edgartown select board was provided with preliminary renderings for a new building for the town’s fire department.
This follows an informal request by the board to look over the proposed project before it heads to the annual town meeting as a warrant article.
A building committee was created last year to identify and review deficiencies in the existing building highlighted in a 2019 feasibility study.
That committee considered a handful of options, including a consolidation of both the fire and police departments. That plan was later nixed when select board members expressed concern that a large, joint facility may not align with the town’s character.
The proposed station’s footprint will be roughly double the size of the current one, EFD Chief Alex Schaeffer said Tuesday, and is meant to better accommodate the needs of the department.
He said the building proposed is “designed to be able to support our department members to be able to have the training that we’ve lost the ability to provide here in the station.”
The project also calls for the construction of a three-bay garage and auxiliary space behind the station, which will also be utilized by the police department next door.
That additional structure will house departmental operations during the main building’s construction phase.
Schaeffer said the department plans to hold information sessions so voters can be more informed come town meeting.
“It’s an important project for the community,” he said, “I know everybody wants to see it fit the character of the town. . . We respect everyone’s interest in the project and want to make sure that people have the information to make an informed decision.”
Therefore, “It’s our intention to get as much information out to the public so that everyone’s well informed before the annual town meeting,” he said.
The proposed station will be taken up by voters as a warrant article at the upcoming annual town meeting on April 11. Date and time for the information sessions are to be determined.
