Fire Station Building Committee hosts virtual community forum

On March 11, the Milton Select Board hosted members of the Fire Station Building Committee and public for a virtual community forum on a proposed fire station at 432 Adams Street.

The forum was designed to give people an opportunity to ask questions, give opinions and provide more information, with some advanced questions having been submitted beforehand.

The forum began by focusing on the topic of location. If another site location was to be selected, the site specific costs for the scope of work would be unknown and have to be reconfigured since currently the costs are known with the project as presented. The FSBC discussed how they have configured their findings into a matrix, a living document, which is supposed to be subjective, and in this matrix many factors are considered, such as the size of lots, vehicle access, the site itself, site development costs, general costs, neighborhood impacts, response time for emergency vehicles, and adequate service coverage.

They did evaluate and analyze the abutting lots near 432 Adams Street, but concluded that they would need a half acre lot to meet the program needs and they did not think it was an appropriate avenue to continue by joining the adjacent lots. They also concluded that rebuilding on the current location is not a viable option to serve the full district as equally as the site is small and would not be able to serve a modern fire station adequately. Rebuilding would also mean higher site package costs.

The Milton Arts Center would not be a suitable option as that area is an already crowded location and it needs to be a central location or it does not make sense. Neighborhood impacts is very important to look into and the FSBC has been and continues to do due diligence.

If 432 Adams Street is to become the site, then this could effect the private way, which could become a project to be addressed. The Traffic Commission might be able to address some of the concerns about the flow of traffic in that area and through the neighborhoods.  Safety concerns are of the upmost importance.

The topic of coverage was brought up, and asking other towns fire departments to cover Milton in the interim, which could be up to 1.5 years, would be asking a lot, as resources would be stretched very thin.

Other concerns that were addressed were that the environmental impact study concluded that no wetlands or habitats will be impacted, flood zone and resiliency was studied and overall the 100 year projection sees no flood impacts.

The construction industry has remained strong, even throughout the pandemic, so the FSBC does not foresee any backlog or delays moving forward with design and construction.

A very recent development that the Select Board has learned of is that they do not plan to enter into the 99 year lease, rather they plan to have a Purchase and Sale with the goal to enter into a non binding set of terms if the decision is to move forward.

The FSBC expressed that Plan B would be to reevaluate, seek out other proposals, eminent domain and/or look into other options.

The next steps would be to transition into a design development phase with opportunities to solicit feedback from the public as well as advance the designs more. They discussed having a Citizen Speak at the end of their meetings and also hosting additional town meetings.

You can learn more about this project and the Fire Station Building Committee at their website: Milton Fire Station Building Committee Information Website (miltonfirestations.org)