[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[15:00] What you can't really just honk me out, because we couldn't figure out where the fault is. And that's just a gale of time. So, just, you know, recently, by the way, something will go on. No attention will have to turn you into a pie to fix. Yeah. And that's just, grab fond of the.
[15:19] So, this is beautiful. So, um, I want to point out all the way to all of what, so, um, what it is in the air, there's usually a huge ice dam that comes down.
[15:32] This is our handicap brand, this is right in the end of life of numerous reasons.
[15:38] It is too narrow, the landing platform is locked up there on this holiday, ability issues to move around.
[15:47] The end of the building is in practice.
[15:50] It opens up, it's locked in life.
[15:54] This is not going to work.
[15:57] That's a lot more than that, you know, actually, so a lot of times I've been
[16:01] abandoning and doing a lot of give-out, and this is between the old town hall
[16:06] which is now five-plotters. They've owned all this, haven't had a close down
[16:11] these old five-plotters. It's pretty even built this bigger, it includes one, it's a lot of
[16:17] wobbling.
[16:21] Again, so these are not more lights, I don't know what the sake of punches could
[16:26] Yeah, but I just want to show you that the matter used to be about that is our
[16:32] partners to work in the world, which as you can see are not insulated, so they tend to
[16:37] scratch on us, which is a lot of good thing when you grow on the wires and let them work.
[16:43] But that's just the way the building is designed, there's no way that it's existing in the
[16:48] and get billed around to be fired as a public signal and I think about the Avenue.
[16:57] All right, great. Thank you. And essentially the same things that you just saw in the police station did open the fire station.
[17:05] Again, we could go on for four hours and talk about and show you pictures.
[17:09] because our building has the same electrical issues.
[17:14] The other day, it was a few months ago now,
[17:17] we had some sort of issue in the attic,
[17:20] and an electrician went up there and brought down
[17:23] a piece of romance that was chewed through
[17:27] by some sort of animal, because we have lots of animals
[17:30] living in the attic, and it was completely burnt,
[17:34] and how we didn't burn the attic down,
[17:36] I'm not exactly sure, but.
[17:39] So, we'll now move into the space and the programming issues within the buildings.
[17:46] This is the apparatus floor, so this is kind of the back of the apparatus floor at FIA headquarters.
[17:53] And you can see that this is our, you can see these cabinets.
[17:58] And this contains mechanical and oils and tools and equipment necessary to fix chains
[18:09] saws and flashlights and all that, right next to it is our sterile medical equipment.
[18:18] And then next to that is our public education supplies.
[18:23] So really not things that you would typically see altogether, this is certainly not something
[18:32] where in a modern contemporary public safety facility we would have emergency medical services
[18:38] supplies, medical supplies that are supposed to be clean and sterile, subjected to the diesel
[18:45] exhaust and so forth of garage.
[18:53] This is our training room. This is on the second floor
[18:56] of the firehouse. This is what the deputy always refers to. It was kind of the catch-all
[19:04] room or the everything room. This is where we have training. This is where we have officers
[19:13] meetings or departmental meetings. This is where our file storage is. This is where we
[19:19] eat our meals. This is where the shift commander runs the shift from. This is where if he
[19:26] We have to talk to a member about a sensitive personnel issue.
[19:32] They do it here, and this is also our gym.
[19:36] So everything that we do at the firehouse, 90% of it is done in this room that's about
[19:45] 30 by 20.
[19:49] This is the one public bathroom we have.
[19:51] I wouldn't call it a bathroom, it's really a toilet in a closet because that's all it
[19:56] is is a toilet and it's obviously not as the building commission it's told both the chief and I both of our buildings are 0% ADA compliant.
[20:08] This is obviously not ADA compliant because it's got a threshold and you can't even get into the building but that's what we can offer the public as far as the public bathroom.
[20:19] And by the way, there's only one other bathroom in the building.
[20:24] So shift change when there's eight or nine firefighters here and some are taking showers
[20:30] because they work the night before and they might have gotten something on them.
[20:39] There's only one other place that somebody can use a bathroom and that's that.
[20:44] Sorry Rob, go back one.
[20:45] This is the basement, you remember we talked about water coming through the floor of the
[20:53] apparatus floor because the concrete is all falling and you can see some of the columns
[20:58] here that are water stained and then everything that's in the basement, we have to try to store
[21:03] in rubber-made containers because you can see all the water that comes down on top of everything
[21:11] down here is, you know, can get ruined pretty easily.
[21:15] And then this is our bunk room.
[21:20] We don't have individual bunk rooms as almost all firehouses do.
[21:28] We essentially sleep next to each other.
[21:33] The firefighters work at least 24 hours at a time, sometimes 48 or 72 hours at a time.
[21:40] So they have to have a place to sleep and rest, and this is where they do it.
[21:50] It's obviously dated, there's really not been much that has happened in this room since the building was built other than there are a few little office petitions.
[22:01] We don't currently have any female firefighters, but we certainly could.
[22:06] there are in fact two on our most recent civil service list and so if we do end up with female
[22:13] firefighters then clearly we don't have we have zero privacy for them and we have zero privacy
[22:20] for our male firefighters because why should they not have privacy right so that's a bunk room
[22:26] that became an issue during COVID when we were you know most firehouses firefighters were able to
[22:35] sleep and individual rooms and therefore they weren't next to each other and weren't having issues
[22:41] relative to transmission of disease and that doesn't have to be with cold but it could be with the
[22:46] flu in any particular winter and you know here obviously we don't really we don't really have that
[22:53] benefit and next is feeding. So this is the basement again of the police station. This is the
[23:04] The locker room for all 25 officers, you will notice that there are no windows.
[23:12] There's no ventilation and the shailing is at approximately 7 feet in the height.
[23:18] These lockers came from the schools back in the 80s.
[23:23] So as you can see, I have boots and everything else are strung everywhere because they cannot
[23:29] dry out when they're in the lockers.
[23:30] So, in order to prevent and dry, officers need to use that.
[23:35] They'll keep their winter jackets or heavy rain jackets outside here to dry because they won't dry in their locks.
[23:41] And they get ruined and contaminated so they have to throw up.
[23:47] This is the attic of the police station where, as you can see these boxes, those of our mandated watch that we have to keep by state law.
[23:56] We have no choice. We have to keep records that go back every day for pre-locations to just daily
[24:02] work. These are from the 70s, you can see here. I can't really look at this way. It starts in
[24:08] the 60s, goes all the way down, comes back. The ones in here in the front now, it's still going all
[24:14] around. Those are the most modern ones that we have. These are the 2015 and 20s. You can see they've
[24:22] been wet. Finally, it's been a wipe.
[24:28] There's no insulation up here, and this is not climate
[24:32] damage. So in the summer, like right now, if you're out here, you're ready to go to the single
[24:38] digits. But this is where my administrative staff come on the board to get them to walk these
[24:46] up a flight of stairs, make sure they don't step over, make sure they don't trip on any of these
[24:51] diagrams that are exposed, and then try to put these watches in order and get records,
[24:57] file records, point of view.
[25:00] So again, I would like to point out, there's the human rule dots, whether or not,
[25:04] actually.
[25:05] I've found all of them on here in Korea.
[25:08] I get all of these sweat through the summer's and winter's, you know, ice cream, the windows
[25:15] basically just burning out.
[25:17] But these are not recommended, but building a self can handle any more weight.
[25:23] So I'm not sure how we're going to go for it, and there's no room on here for personal
[25:30] files.
[25:31] I just said we have to keep from taking that.
[25:34] Chief, if I could just add one other thing, is that in this room, which again, we can do
[25:39] this all night, but just to this side of this, these files are the fixed communication
[25:46] equipment racks for both police and fire. So all of our radio equipment is stored
[25:53] in in the attic of the police station because that's where dispatch is at
[25:59] 115 to 120 degrees you know during the summer. It is it is not good for the
[26:06] equipment and we have had failure after failure and undoubtedly some of that is
[26:12] due to the exposure to high temperature.
[26:18] So similar to the fire burning, this stands my sergeants,
[26:23] five sergeants share this cubicle, five.
[26:26] There are basically many mental management
[26:28] if you ran an oral business.
[26:30] They are your day-to-day operations.
[26:33] They have to meet with staff.
[26:35] They have to meet with the public.
[26:36] They have to give out orders, give personnel decisions,
[26:42] and how some people sometimes, that's fair for our government, each one of them have
[26:48] an outgab and a fair, the senior sergeant, Neil, and the new Stu, because you don't
[26:53] have a guys, but those methods once they've done, those are at some point as well.
[27:01] This can't be where you can see in the immediate foreground, that's the one state, and you'll
[27:06] see that from a different angle.
[27:07] So, as you can see, that's the sergeant's cubicle, that's the lunch table, that's an officer
[27:17] writing a report, that's our refrigerator where we guys keep their lunches, and this
[27:23] is all one big room.
[27:26] There is no downtime for offices to get any sort of de-escalation, you can claim that there's
[27:34] no way for offices to relax.
[27:37] You walk into this room and there's anytime five or six people in here walking through the
[27:42] Is the only way to leave the building up on the front door so when civilian staff want to leave
[27:48] They come back to this room. There's a back door behind that column. You can't see that goes under the back parking lot.
[27:54] These should all be individual. That's that's what a real professional business looks like.
[28:00] That's what we're publishing.
[28:01] until the play. These are the new interviews with anybody who wants me to be here in practice.
[28:14] Okay. Now we'll cover the third aspect of the buildings and that's health and safety.
[28:24] As we talked about earlier, we have a beautiful tin ceiling in the apparatus floor of the firehouse
[28:30] and unfortunately, it is all chipped and obviously falling down on top of us.
[28:40] It is old, old paint and undoubtedly lead paint.
[28:45] Again, this is the basement where the water from that apparatus floor is coming through.
[28:51] You can't really see it here, but kind of cool, knob and tube wiring.
[28:56] And also, there was a gas fixture here.
[29:01] I can't see if it's there, but there's a gas fixture
[29:05] because it used to be natural gas lighting downstairs.
[29:08] So neat, historic, but not really good for a modern fire facility.
[29:13] And again, the structural beams are being constantly exposed to water.
[29:21] This is our one true bathroom.
[29:23] You saw the toilet and a closet downstairs.
[29:25] This is our other bathroom so we have essentially one toilet, one shower, one sink, and then we have our washer dryer.
[29:37] And this is the room. I'm standing in the doorway so that's as big as the room is.
[29:43] One of the things that is a contemporary issue relative to firefighting is the exposure of our members to carcinogens.
[29:54] And it's essentially and everything that
[30:00] All the smoke that we go into, it used to be that fires would consume wood and cotton and natural fibers. And today, fires are consuming plastic. And everything that we have today is made of plastic. And that plastic is extremely toxic. And it's not only toxic to breathe, but it's extremely toxic. The particulate that gets on our skin is very toxic.
[30:29] toxic, and even though we are fully encapsulated, and even though we wear self-contained breathing
[30:36] apparatus masks, we are still exposed to those chemicals on a daily basis.
[30:44] And when we come back from a fire, and it doesn't have to be a house that burned down, it
[30:51] can be a small fire, it can be a fire on someone's stove top.
[30:57] And we do lots of those and that pot or pan that was on your stove top that was covered
[31:05] in teflon that is now incinerated and burned and got all that up into the air and which
[31:13] were all breathing and gets on our clothing and our skin and absorbs in the very soft skin
[31:20] around our neck and on our wrists and places like that, cumulatively over the course of
[31:27] time, that's a problem for firefighters, which is why we have lots of firefighters
[31:31] that are getting diagnosed with cancer at a very young age.
[31:38] So we stress to firefighters that when you come back from any sort of exposure like that
[31:45] to take a shower.
[31:47] This is our one shower, and if we have a working fire, and we have, say, 12 firefighters
[31:54] that both the floor that we're working and eight from off duty that came in to assist
[31:59] the floor that are working, we have 12 firefighters that responded that fire.
[32:04] And we ask them, please don't go home and bring all that crappy clothes home and, you know,
[32:10] into your own washing machine.
[32:12] please don't go home and take a shower in your own shower. We want you to do it
[32:16] here at our building. They have to wait in line to take a shower and we we ask
[32:22] you know the national standard is shower within the hour. That's what we
[32:26] tell firefighters over and over. You have to shower within the hour but if you
[32:30] have 12 firefighters lined up to take a shower obviously it's going to be tough
[32:35] to get that all done within an hour. And then this is you know this is our
[32:40] We only have one. This is the same washer dryer that we wash, you know, the uniform that we just came back from the fire and we throw that in and we wash that and then we take those out and then the bed linens a dirty and they need to go in there.
[32:58] All of these things are solved with a modern contemporary fire and police facility.
[33:05] And speaking of, you know, contamination, it's not only smoke and chemicals and
[33:13] caution engines, it's also blood-borne pathogens.
[33:16] We do many, many medicals, and we get lots of bodily fluids on us.
[33:24] And those bodily fluids can be things that we don't or, you know, want to be contaminated
[33:31] with.
[33:31] So we need to shower, we need to wash our clothes, and the police officers do as well, and they don't have any, they don't even have a wash machine in their building.
[33:41] So they don't even have the opportunity, unless they come over and see us.
[33:46] New building, we'll talk about the new building. I won't talk about it just a second.
[33:51] And this is our, we have one sink on the main apparatus floor.
[33:55] This sink is directly across from the toilet in a closet.
[34:01] It's a beautiful soapstone sink.
[34:04] It's original to the building as far as we know.
[34:07] But so you come out of using the toilet and you walk across a little way here and you can wash your hands.
[34:15] But that's the same place that we're also coming back from the fire and washing the tools that we just used to
[34:24] you know, break up all of the, the foot and the ash and all of that. Our, um, our
[34:31] SCBA harnesses, you know, the air packs that we wear and the bottles, all that needs to be washed.
[34:37] That's all washed in that sink. Everything we do is in that sink because it's the only one we have.
[34:45] And then, uh, I think this is the last one for fire. This is the, uh, attic and, uh,
[34:50] Aside from the wiring, and I already told you about the burnt up
[34:54] Romax and all that and the poor installation and who knows what's in that
[34:58] Vermiculite, but there are animals up here and you know that we hear them all
[35:05] the time running over our head and so you know with animals come animal
[35:10] droppings and animal urine and all of those things that you know go along with
[35:16] with having furry creatures living with us.
[35:20] Why is this important?
[35:22] It's all important because we care about our employees
[35:26] and we care about our members and we want them to be healthy
[35:30] and we want them to be safe.
[35:32] And, you know, the deputy talks about this all the time.
[35:36] There's a reason that we call it a firehouse, not a fire station.
[35:40] It's a firehouse because that's, it is our house.
[35:42] We live in that house.
[35:44] 24, 48, 72 hours at a time we live there for the better part of our life we're living in this house
[35:54] and you know I don't know anybody that would have their own house like this
[35:59] but yet we subject our employees to this kind of stuff
[36:05] 42, 58, 72 hours a week we subject them to this and it's just not right we have our families come to our
[36:12] to our firehouse. The little kids run around the firehouse. My kids were born and raised
[36:18] in the firehouse that I did the majority of my career in. I've pictures of them from
[36:22] when they were born right up through when I retired and they spent their whole life there.
[36:29] It's our house. We have our family there and it's important to us. But as chiefs it's important
[36:35] that we make sure that our members are taken care of and they're safe and they're healthy.
[36:41] And just one last thing about this, this is just the outside of our building, and again,
[36:46] it shows that not only is it important to us, and we want to make sure that we're healthy
[36:50] and safe, we have zero ADA access to our building.
[36:54] So if somebody shows up at our doorstep and they're in a wheelchair, they can't come in.
[36:59] The access to every single door has a threshold, and they can't get in.
[37:04] And the front ramp is at such an angle that they would not be able to get a wheelchair up.
[37:09] But the only place that could potentially come in would be through the ladder bay, which
[37:15] was the add on building at the back, but then somebody would need to know that there.
[37:20] And there's also a ramp to get up into the main building.
[37:24] So that's it.
[37:25] Thank you.
[37:28] Okay.
[37:28] So now we're back to the police station and to piggyback on cheap ferries, these comments.
[37:36] These buildings are 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
[37:38] sometimes officers who get stocked for $24, this is the only bathroom.
[37:45] It is open to the locker room. It's all open. That's shower, is there a clinic?
[37:49] Is that the person who gets the lights off? And there's the one urinal. Again, as I mentioned,
[37:57] obviously, but goods are a clinic. It's the only way to make sure that we look on to the victim by
[38:04] property. Again, there's no ventilation in this area. This is the one shower. You will not see
[38:11] the female walk-in room or the female showers because we do not have that. They do not exist.
[38:17] If I get a female candidate, we're not sure how we're going to accommodate that.
[38:24] So that's down here. Again, this is just for 25 individuals in a small little area.
[38:31] area.
[38:33] So this is an interesting point. So this is the lock up or the shelf lock area,
[38:40] but we are less summer than you see the door on this, the door on this, the door on this
[38:43] point, this is where we're giving workers, I don't have to tell the, those are five stairs
[38:50] at an angle that's about 70 degrees. They're not even legal for the average building by
[38:59] I don't know if you need somebody with more girlish action, again, custody, as you can see,
[39:04] I'm going to bring out some of the savings you would find, so I'm here, I want to apply this here,
[39:10] and I'm here to get some of you to come back, or intoxicated, or I'm looking for a good company,
[39:17] and there's not willfully being good. You can be very pleased. We're going to go down and pop.
[39:26] So, this is the cell block area that you can just see now that the hallway is too narrow
[39:33] for a stretcher to get it.
[39:35] So, if anybody have a medical emergency, one of these cells, we have to carry them out
[39:41] because stretches will not fit in there again, right?
[39:44] I mean, your stairs, you can't get the stretches up there anyways, so we have to go up the
[39:50] front door.
[39:52] Each one of these cells, as you can see, has bars.
[39:54] those are illegal. Behind them, you can just see the electrical on the, yeah, that is bolted into the
[40:01] back so that somebody cannot use that as an anchor point to self-harm. We're going to waver from
[40:07] the Department of Public Health every year in order to just maintain me, but it is coming to an end
[40:14] route quickly. I suspect we're probably not be able to house any people who leave it
[40:21] a future because of the lack of health issues that are here.
[40:27] Again, there's no ventilation down here.
[40:30] There's more lighting.
[40:31] You can see all the electrical work is strung over things
[40:35] because the building was never designed for.
[40:37] Those are all in violation of both building codes as well
[40:40] as health codes.
[40:42] But that is what our county facility has.
[40:46] These little panels you see down here.
[40:49] That's the key.
[40:50] So in the overtime, those of so
[40:53] much of the hour is waiting in the
[40:55] break, Jesus, the sun, they get the
[40:57] whole.
[40:58] It gets very cold.
[40:59] And how much you try to make it
[41:01] might get in the void students.
[41:03] Again, when we have inspectors come in,
[41:05] they always fight us out.
[41:07] You can not provide partner eating
[41:09] a cold for the night.
[41:11] Our death.
[41:13] And this is our street.
[41:15] And that's the front station,
[41:17] a front door to the police station,
[41:18] which opens up to with street, I don't know any of the building that has a front door with
[41:24] that close door road. It's a public road, a public building, public road. By the way,
[41:30] those are three steps. So if you have any mobility issues, you cannot get into the pre-station through
[41:34] the front door. Cars can go by here and it is 20 mile an hour speed limit, but if you're stepping
[41:41] in going, anybody could get injured. The door opens in because it can open out, which is
[41:48] Again, building code is supposed to open out for fire issues.
[41:53] But if you do push the door open, I'd be a three more set of the door.
[41:56] You already get to the front lobby in order to talk to somebody in the station.
[42:00] Again, this is not complying.
[42:03] There's no way to fix this.
[42:05] You could not.
[42:06] Put a ramp in to make this.
[42:09] I would kind of know how you would have to dig out two further out street with the web.
[42:15] And basically, I don't see that without them, and then right now, I've stationed. I don't think the neighbors, but she's got to make a drive away.
[42:24] So that's another concern for us to be important.
[42:31] All right, so we're now going to go into the
[42:36] proposed building.
[42:41] So this is one that we wanted to point out to a lot of people because we hear about the size of the building and
[42:48] All the land and the and the we're in the wetlands, which is we'll address all that
[42:53] Misinformation later. Wow. It's up here. That's the church that everybody knows, okay
[42:59] Our building entire footprint does not extend beyond the front door of that show
[43:04] So you're not taking up this entire
[43:07] a car with land. That is a misconception. Our building is no larger than the current
[43:12] church is sitting on that lot and we're lower. They have steeple as and and their
[43:18] roof line is a good 10 to 12. You love where I'm finding. So we just wanted to have
[43:23] that layout. So people get better and we're seeing where the building is floating
[43:28] on a pilot road, not downtown swamp road, and not anywhere down here, which
[43:34] So
[43:38] this, I'm sure seeing this already, this is the front view, the architectural rendering
[43:46] of what the building will look like.
[43:50] It has what's called the entourage, which is the vehicles and people just to give it scale
[43:57] so that you can kind of see what it looks like.
[44:01] A lot of the facade changes that you see here compared to the design that you saw in the fall of 25 were as a direct result of the five public meetings that we had with the citizenry and after collecting input and listening to the public, this is the final design.
[44:28] This is the Pine Swamp Roadside, and most of what you see on this side is a police facility.
[44:36] Sally Port down, Sally Port doors down below, and offices on the first and second floor.
[44:43] This is essentially called the ground level, and this is primarily the fireside.
[44:50] This is the training tower, and this should be fired upon attacking on this side.
[44:56] and this is the side of the apparatus bay and then across.
[45:00] Here is the back of the apparatus pay.
[45:04] We do have some floor plans in addition to the floor plans that will just kind of briefly go over on the screen. We also have construction drawings here. If anybody wants to look at them, you're welcome to, but you can go back one of them. I'll let the chief talk about this because this primarily police. So this is the bottom floor ground level. This part of the building here is not estimated.
[45:30] we're using the topography. But these would be the two Sally board base for the police station.
[45:37] Back in the far corner was the cell block area where you do everything will be ground level.
[45:42] This is the office's locker rooms. This is a break room. There's a female locker area as well as
[45:49] bathrooms for both. Up in the top left corner is the roll call room, which would be specifically
[45:54] dedicated to offices coming, going for shifts, getting updates, getting their marching orders,
[46:01] so to speak. And then they can go right out around level to the to their cruisers. At no
[46:08] point do they have to go upstairs or use stairs. Right now, we have the client upstairs, downstairs,
[46:13] breaking stairs. They have been great time for a team to come by. They'll get roll call in and
[46:18] and go on five stairs.
[46:20] So when you're in a rush to bring the door into it,
[46:24] that should be on 30 days.
[46:26] When you're trying to run around here
[46:28] with other people in the hallways,
[46:30] going up and down 10, 15 series,
[46:33] you can come and have such a good drink.
[46:37] If you speak to the A&A on Sally Porting
[46:39] to be always else, speak to it.
[46:44] Yeah, so every, this Sally Port right here
[46:46] is the main one.
[46:47] There's a double door here at the top,
[46:49] Which would allow an ambulance to come in if we had somebody in the back that had a medical issue and
[46:56] Come right through with this with the stretcher be able to get them on the stretcher and get them out quickly
[47:01] We can't do that as I explained earlier. We're on two different levels
[47:05] But this would specifically designed for that purpose as well as we have some bulk storage here for
[47:12] Sometimes we have to maintain
[47:15] It's lodging and we can keep in our evidence areas.
[47:19] Right now, we are going to play a wide decision in the bottom of the line.
[47:23] It's been there for almost years now, you know, so we've been here a lot.
[47:27] It's a little bit clear. It's a movement, but it's just.
[47:31] It's up to the top.
[47:31] We find brought across and trying to get on.
[47:34] That really should be an impound day that I constantly just does not think.
[47:41] So this is the main floor.
[47:44] This is what would be going on live with the work so far, this is a live workload.
[47:49] That would be problem level for most people.
[47:52] The data is that double doors right there.
[47:56] There's an elevated here for people to go to the bottom floor, as the top floor.
[48:00] Again, one of the things that the chief and I failed to mention.
[48:03] We have our elevators on your seat.
[48:05] Again, this is the app when people are building issues.
[48:09] and not even a fork to put one in, the bill attack on here.
[48:14] This is basically all police down here,
[48:17] operations, both records management,
[48:19] so we can keep the files in climate-controlled areas,
[48:24] office space for the assignments,
[48:26] for the harbors, for the shellfish,
[48:29] for the pirate areas from where the lab,
[48:32] so that our captives can process things properly,
[48:36] is a lot here that is now considered standard for public safety, how you operate, how you
[48:43] maintain change of commands or evidence, how you maintain all of your body cameras for
[48:48] the journey to make you want to hear the case of equipment so that there's accountability
[48:52] and transparency.
[48:54] Any moment we can get that information because we're all out of here, we have a four-line
[49:00] dedicated area just so that officers can get out of the elements.
[49:04] I had mentioned the break room and I had mentioned earlier that right now we have no place
[49:10] of office, I don't believe you for us to just sort of collapse that triplets.
[49:16] To the chief's point, we get a lot of bad motifs like these, unfortunately sometimes they're
[49:22] fatal sometimes.
[49:23] You know, you just care.
[49:24] Everyone, people, these are open and bigger to sort of.
[49:28] We do not have any shop facilities about a lot of these facilities.
[49:32] We basically have to have offices go home with that stuff.
[49:36] Yeah, obviously, which is not proper in a chest.
[49:39] And of course, in a situation where it is, so it's things like that.
[49:45] But adding that bone for a concept will get out of stress even for a 45 minutes just like your thoughts and get writing out before you go back on the shoot.
[49:55] I get the help for both three suppliers, you know, critical appoints must they need.
[50:01] are kind of the citizens not provide for, simply do not.
[50:06] Both the conditions are being poor and that cannot be memorable in that of mine,
[50:12] and I am willing to sell it.
[50:14] It does not transfer all the people out of it.
[50:18] Issues would be pertinent.
[50:24] And just, so that's essentially the police side over here on the fireside.
[50:29] But we currently have four single deep bays that doubles our capacity.
[50:37] So now we have four double deep bays instead of four single deep bays.
[50:45] You heard me talk a lot about decontamination.
[50:49] The entire front of that area up near the front of the building is all decontamination.
[50:58] So that is where if a firefighter comes back from fire,
[51:02] if when firefighters come back from fires, they can go into that area
[51:07] and we have two showers there and also all of the equipment
[51:14] that they can just take off their uniforms and they'll have lockers there
[51:21] that they can put on scrubs or something so they can come down here
[51:25] do a what's called a gross decon just a quick two-minute get a lot of the you know stuff that you see off
[51:32] put on a pair of scrubs their uniform stay down there because there's a washer dryer down there
[51:38] just dedicated for uniforms their turn out gear stays down there because the turn out gear washer
[51:44] and dryer down there the tools stay right in that room because that's where there's a long sink that
[51:50] that all of the tools can be cleaned,
[51:53] and then they can go upstairs where there are four showers
[51:57] that they can actually take a more robust shower
[52:01] and cleanse themselves and get rid of the contaminants
[52:05] that may be on their body.
[52:08] So that's a huge plus for this building.
[52:12] Next to that is the gear room where we didn't show it
[52:16] just again, we didn't have time,
[52:17] but our turnout gear is currently stored in these wooden lockers that the guys made themselves.
[52:24] They have zero ventilation. Again, they're made of wood, which tends to hold contaminants,
[52:31] smells, moisture. This is a room specifically designed for our turnout gear. It is ventilated,
[52:42] it breathes, it is made of wire lockers, as opposed to wood, has floor drains and so
[52:52] forth. So it's a room is designed for that across the apparatus bay, which is very
[53:00] open and much wider than our current bays. Again, we didn't show this, but right now when we
[53:10] We pull out of the building out of our headquarters building.
[53:14] There's about an inch or so on each side of the apparatus as we pull out of the building.
[53:20] And when that happens, it could cause problems.
[53:26] This is much wider.
[53:28] It allows for the firefighters to get into the gear quicker, as opposed to being next to
[53:36] another fire truck or the the climate event system and so forth. So it's it's much more efficient.
[53:45] Next to the watchroom desk up top is a actual place for medical supplies. So it's in a
[53:53] clean environment. It's not on the apparatus floor. It's behind a closed door in a climate controlled
[54:00] environment in a clean office so that our medical supplies are clean as they
[54:06] should be. And then there is a room for tools and all of our, you know, a
[54:13] flammable liquids cabinet and a grinder and a vice and a drill press and
[54:21] things that we need to repair our tools and to do our job. And then next to that
[54:26] That is an air compressor room.
[54:29] All of this right now is just out on the apparatus floor, just with just Willie Milley.
[54:37] And you know, it's just it's not the way a professional organization should be run.
[54:42] And then right here in the back is a share, a couple of shared spaces on this floor.
[54:46] This is a shared physical fitness room about a little of a 400 square feet between police
[54:55] and fire.
[54:55] will both be able to use that which I think is really cool because I think it'll build camaraderie
[55:01] between fire and police you know we all know firefighters are bigger and stronger but you know
[55:06] the police they do okay yeah they can and then shared training room as well which I think is
[55:17] something that will be fantastic currently we don't have a place where all of the police officers
[55:23] a good go or all of the firefighters could go when we have a meeting for our firefighters
[55:28] we have to pull a truck out and have it in that dirty bay as opposed to this is a professional
[55:34] clean place that we could actually have a meeting or have a training and then across the front
[55:40] is dispatch again combined dispatch to me you know selfishly being able to go into a building where
[55:49] dispatch is right in the same building, to me, is going to be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to that, and then public restrooms so that the public can can utilize that.
[56:05] So, thank you.
[56:07] We're looking for, so, the main lot, right now we're running a new online vision, anybody
[56:14] can come and go.
[56:15] We have interviews.
[56:15] We talk to people that are having family issues, critical incidents, they're talking anybody
[56:21] can walk in and hear their conversation because we don't have it actually dedicated interview
[56:26] room.
[56:27] And so, now we have, off the main lobby, a location where it's in a soft interview room
[56:32] If someone has personal issues with us, officers
[56:35] to reap them inside, they're not in the lot
[56:38] to part of the facility, they're still out in the building.
[56:42] So that they can come in here, have a private conversation,
[56:45] and then leave without having people
[56:46] worried seeing them or hearing their discussions
[56:50] as the chief legislator.
[56:51] We have public bathrooms now.
[56:53] How do we do not have public bathrooms anywhere
[56:55] in the downtown area?
[56:57] Community and training room will also provide spaces
[57:01] This is for the community years because it's an outside door where you don't even have to go in the middle and let it inside and post any sort of, you know, meetings that the town can always find it by six.
[57:12] This problem we could have been done in a facility like that if we actually have.
[57:18] And I think that room will also double as the EOC as well so that in the event of a large scale community wide incident.
[57:28] Both that room as well as the smaller conference room upstairs will be where the emergency operation center will be located where all of the stakeholders can gather and then the smaller room upstairs for the immediate command staff.
[57:44] So this is the second floor of the facility.
[57:46] The right side is fire, and then the left side is predominantly police.
[57:53] There are six dorms on the second floor that will have two beds each with the capability
[58:02] of having two bunk beds each.
[58:05] So theoretically, we could actually have enough room to sleep everyone in the event of a storm,
[58:12] room, but typically our shift strength would not exceed six, so every member would have
[58:19] their own private dorm, which is again what a modern contemporary facility has.
[58:28] It offers privacy, each member would have a locker in their room so that they can come
[58:33] in.
[58:34] Right now, all of our lockers are in a TV room, essentially, so there's no place to change,
[58:41] You know, so you change in the middle of the bunk room and there is no privacy.
[58:48] So this offers a level of privacy that we don't currently enjoy.
[58:55] We also have a separate laundry facility on the second floor.
[59:00] That is for things like uniforms that aren't grossly soiled or bed linens and things of
[59:07] nature so that they are separate from the contaminated uniforms that we talked about downstairs,
[59:15] where those would be laundered. Storage areas so that we actually have room to have storage,
[59:21] as opposed to just having stuff laying about on tables. A fairly modest but comfortable
[59:29] kind of day-room slash kitchen where firefighters spend a lot of time in the
[59:36] kitchen. That's where we decompress. That's where we have an opportunity to come
[59:41] back after a bad call or a tough call and discuss it and debrief it and talk
[59:47] about the good and the bad. So that is something that is located here in the
[59:54] middle, and then the offices are across the front.
[1:00:00] There's a fire chief's office, the deputies, the fire prevention office, a report writing room and a command staff room. The command staff, I showed you that desk earlier, that all of the four shift commanders share that desk or whoever's in charge, that they shares that desk. This particular, it's still in, they're in one office, but they all have their own essentially space, which is a huge improvement over where we are right now.
[1:00:29] Now, if they need to have privacy to talk to an employee about a sensitive issue, they
[1:00:35] can bring that employee in there, close the door, and they're the only ones that are going
[1:00:39] to get that conversation.
[1:00:41] The report writing room is next to that, and that's where the firefighters can do training.
[1:00:46] They can write reports and so forth, so they have their own area.
[1:00:51] And then the fight-up almond doesn't currently have an administrative assistant, so we do
[1:00:58] all of the clerical work styles between the deputy and I, but someday there should be
[1:01:03] an administrative assistant for the fire department. We have space for that. We really don't
[1:01:07] have space in the current facility for any sort of admin help. And then up here we have
[1:01:13] three individual bathrooms. So three showers upstairs with toilets and sinks. And so members
[1:01:23] can should not have to wait as long as they do as they do in the current facility.
[1:01:30] This also does give access to the stair, this is the egress stair that is required by code
[1:01:40] to come out of the second floor to go to an egress to go to the outside, but it doubles as
[1:01:46] the training tower and you saw that training tower from the outside, so that is where we will
[1:01:52] conduct training with theatrical smoke and blackout masks and that kind of thing.
[1:02:01] There is an outside deck here that will be screened, so the neighbors will not have to see
[1:02:07] us and I think, oh, and then underneath this area, which we really don't, we don't have
[1:02:14] a floor plan, but underneath this is a mezzanine, underneath that area, is a mezzanine, again
[1:02:21] for storage right now, all that stuff that's in the basement, that's getting covered,
[1:02:26] the gobbling book that's coming down through the floor, that will be in a nice area in the
[1:02:31] mezzanines.
[1:02:34] And for the police side of this, this is all our ministering staff up in the talk,
[1:02:41] the command staff, as well as the
[1:02:47] the system, who would either face the hardening of something comes up to see what
[1:02:50] achieves, or even the fight sheaves, would come up into that center there or the elevator
[1:02:55] and there to fight, maybe it's up to your own area, would they be going to ask for a good
[1:03:00] big, big, big boy, how did they do this, well, they would have been caused up to know that
[1:03:06] they're coming, they wouldn't have free access to this, that elevator's a lock, they'll
[1:03:09] We would love to go with the bus day to get our shares.
[1:03:14] This is also where our server runs.
[1:03:16] We didn't touch on this a lot in our current conditions,
[1:03:19] but our server runs right now are not designed to server up.
[1:03:25] So when computers run, they have to stay on,
[1:03:27] not that whole temperatures are loaded
[1:03:29] and run efficiently.
[1:03:32] We have them in my station in Kuala Lumpur.
[1:03:35] We have the mission built into the wall,
[1:03:37] like that one you see in the back.
[1:03:38] run in 24 hours a day even in the winter time because there's no right here but
[1:03:44] it's where our 911 system is it's where our record management service all
[1:03:49] exist and so now we're having a dedicated area where if there's ever an
[1:03:55] incident it's a dry chemical system but when I want to go fires right now we have
[1:04:00] water which is destroying the equipment but at least prevent them from setting the
[1:04:08] the top left, you see a conference room.
[1:04:11] Neither of our facilities currently has a conference room
[1:04:14] where we could just host the public and talk to them privately
[1:04:18] or small groups.
[1:04:20] We now have that ability, it's available to us
[1:04:23] not for the first time, so that's the business side
[1:04:26] of both of our facilities.
[1:04:32] So I think we talked about most of this already going through
[1:04:36] the schematic, but as a recap,
[1:04:38] The new facility will provide a safe, stable, building free of structural or health issues, a place where we can be proud to have our employees, our employees will be proud to work there, and they will be safe and healthy and are able to, we're able to welcome the public there without having any issues.
[1:05:04] And I think the chief talked about, both he and I talked about pretty much everything
[1:05:11] on this list, private interview rooms for folks coming in that need to speak to an
[1:05:15] officer.
[1:05:16] Right now they have zero privacy, a detention area that's safe for police guests, a crime
[1:05:22] lab, records and evidence storage, ADA access to both of our buildings, which is currently
[1:05:28] non-existent public restrooms which is currently non-existent, a clean EMS
[1:05:33] applied storage area and then lastly decontamination facilities for both our
[1:05:39] members and our equipment and that's probably the most important thing for us.
[1:05:47] So just some stuff that some issues that have come up in the past that we'd
[1:05:50] figure we'd just get ahead of why 36 line book road chief again so I
[1:05:58] chose this at the beginning a little bit why 36 line book road again the
[1:06:05] misconception that we only looked at one spot at two spots is that that's that's
[1:06:09] not true this as I said we've been doing this now since 2016 we went back to the
[1:06:15] 2012 study. We went back to the 2002 study and looked at all the same sites. Most of them
[1:06:22] have been redeveloped for an hour and five at the end. They were no longer available.
[1:06:27] They did not meet our needs. So that's how we fell on the two sites, both Elm Street
[1:06:33] site and the current site. And if you look on appendix cave in that study, you went
[1:06:41] But there were matrix, the entire community, everybody involved including architects and people that do this were a living and they all said that the 36 lineback road was the site that was optimum for the town of Ipswich.
[1:06:55] And again, it met all of that thing that we needed, less death, less traffic, still centrally located.
[1:07:02] It's large enough for the building, as you can see, we're not even on 30% of the building.
[1:07:09] I mean, the land location, the building itself, we need to come pop that, which is all on stable ground.
[1:07:18] To the point where, because of the chance of building code, that was just brought up to the state just mandated.
[1:07:25] We had decided that the steel that we were putting in the building would sustain if we had
[1:07:32] that earthquake.
[1:07:33] That's land-dated.
[1:07:35] That study showed that we're in 12 feet of dry, solid, drought.
[1:07:43] It couldn't even reach the groundwork, so when we hear people say, you're in a wet land,
[1:07:48] you can never build a wet land, you should do that, that is just unheard of.
[1:07:53] We're not in any way near it.
[1:07:54] when we hear that the building will say,
[1:07:56] now instead of deciding to be stable,
[1:07:59] once they're within any building,
[1:08:01] we'll probably go right now on the top of the building,
[1:08:03] once we're done.
[1:08:04] So, I'm not sure how it would say considering
[1:08:07] the caretakers of what he has either,
[1:08:09] so I don't know.
[1:08:13] Central street and went up school.
[1:08:15] It's not available.
[1:08:17] It will not be available for years.
[1:08:20] There's never, there's no guarantee of that.
[1:08:22] But we need to start building this on out so we can get our stuff accomplished.
[1:08:26] We cannot survive in order.
[1:08:29] And again, L Street is probably by the one of these realized, really look at from the top
[1:08:35] out as we have booked out.
[1:08:37] Except that.
[1:08:40] Thanks, Chief.
[1:08:44] The other topic that's talked a lot about is fire headquarters being centrally located.
[1:08:51] And it's absolutely critical for fire headquarters to be centrally located, as I'm sure you know,
[1:08:57] we only have one fire station in Ipswich that is staffed.
[1:09:02] That's an important distinction, because I've seen a lot of chatter in the past few days
[1:09:06] about our line work station, and our line work station while it's there and it's brick
[1:09:13] and mortar, there are no firefighters in it.
[1:09:16] So it was built in, or it was taken over by the fight upon in the 80s when Deputy Emerson's
[1:09:26] father was chief.
[1:09:28] And it was a great act at the time because we had a very robust call firefighting force
[1:09:35] and the call firefighters would respond to there and take a piece of fire out from there.
[1:09:40] As you know, our call firefighter numbers
[1:09:43] dwindled and dwindled to the point
[1:09:45] where they were essentially, we were in single digits.
[1:09:48] We had three left and we made the decision
[1:09:52] to expand the call firefighting force.
[1:09:57] And, you know, in the last five years,
[1:09:59] maybe in the last 10 years,
[1:10:01] that was not the place that they were responding to anyway.
[1:10:04] They were coming back to headquarters.
[1:10:05] They were not using line vegetation.
[1:10:07] that was back in the, you know, 15-year-old range when there were 30 call firefighters.
[1:10:14] So it just wasn't, it is not a building that is currently staffed by firefighters.
[1:10:21] We are struggling to have enough full-time firefighters, you know,
[1:10:25] our one station that's staffed, let alone staff, the second one.
[1:10:29] Do I think that someday if switch needs to staff, the Lyme Brook station, 100% we do.
[1:10:34] Just like we need to have a fire station out on the neck, but we have to take baby steps at this, so
[1:10:41] We need to make sure we have the proper staffing downtown first
[1:10:48] So the one firehouse that we do have to cover our 44 square miles including markland is
[1:10:56] Located centrally. It's currently at 55 central street the proposed location is at 36 line book road
[1:11:03] The reason that I think 36-line work road works so well is because this doesn't happen.
[1:11:12] This is a picture of a morning, a typical morning, at the Winthrop School which we love
[1:11:20] our neighbors at the Winthrop and we love having them there, we love being next to them.
[1:11:25] But we deal with congestion and traffic issues on a regular basis in front of our building.
[1:11:33] We deal with this.
[1:11:37] We also deal with next slide, please.
[1:11:43] This.
[1:11:43] This is just another typical day in front of FireHeadquarters at 55 Central Street.
[1:11:49] This is not because it's a parade or something, you know, going on, this is just a regular
[1:11:56] day.
[1:11:57] And, you know, you folks know this, you see it all the time, right, and this is, you know,
[1:12:03] what we deal with.
[1:12:04] So, when we come out of this building and we come down the ramp, you know, this 12 feet
[1:12:09] before we're into a pedestrian sidewalk and then ultimately right out onto the street,
[1:12:18] It's constructed, it's dangerous, and it's not the ideal place for us to be coming out
[1:12:25] to respond in an emergency fashion.
[1:12:29] This photograph is a picture of a trash truck that's across the street.
[1:12:36] That doesn't necessarily have to be a trash truck, it could be a UPS driver, it could be an
[1:12:41] Amazon truck, it could be a furniture delivery truck.
[1:12:43] It could be something broken down across the street, but for us to make a left hand turn
[1:12:51] or right hand turn coming out of our building, once the apparatus comes out of the building,
[1:12:56] we have to get all the way to the double yellow line with the wheels on the double yellow line
[1:13:02] before we can turn the apparatus to go left or right.
[1:13:06] Because otherwise the tail swing will take out the column because it's so tight for us to go in and out of that building.
[1:13:17] So as you know, when you turn, when you turn a truck, the back end moves in the opposite direction.
[1:13:24] So if we start turning this apparatus before we clear this, we're either going to strike the same side that we're turning on, or we're going to hit the other side with the tail swing.
[1:13:35] So we have to come all the way out, almost all the way out of the building before we can make a left or a right.
[1:13:42] If there's a truck parked across the street, we're dead in the water.
[1:13:47] The deputy has to hold many times because they have had to go knock on doors across the street
[1:13:54] for furniture delivery people or Amazon drivers and say, hey, you can't talk to you.
[1:13:58] You've got to move your truck because we can't leave our building.
[1:14:02] Those who choose the school traffic that
[1:14:09] in just regular, regular 1-8 traffic are much
[1:14:16] reduced on line report.
[1:14:19] That coupled with the fact that no matter what side of the railroad tracks were on, we're
[1:14:26] going to be potentially delayed by the train.
[1:14:29] There is nothing we can do about that.
[1:14:31] But fire apparatus, as long as we only have one fire station in dip switch, we will always
[1:14:38] be delayed by the train if the train happens to be crossing at the same time we're trying
[1:14:42] to get through.
[1:14:43] If you listen to us on our frequency at all, you will often hear us say, and you choose
[1:14:48] delayed by the train, medic one delayed by the train, it happens on a, it happens on a,
[1:14:54] well it's, I don't know if it's, it might be daily, it might be every other day, it's
[1:14:58] certainly frequent.
[1:14:59] Thank you.
[1:15:00] It happens all the time. It's just a, it's a back of life of living here. So, again, a lot of discussion about response time and so forth. And I can, I can tell you from my professional opinion in my professional experience, moving from 55 Central Street to 36 Linebrook Road will not create a problem regarding overall response times in our community.
[1:15:29] Could it be that we're going to get some place slightly quicker?
[1:15:34] Yes. Could it be that we're going to get some place?
[1:15:37] It's going to take us slightly longer to get to another place in town?
[1:15:41] Yes, but overall response times will not diminish because of moving 0.8 miles
[1:15:48] from where we're currently at to 36 lineback road.
[1:15:53] What will improve our response time is the fact that we're operating
[1:15:58] responding from a modern, contemporary fire facility that allows us to have our gear
[1:16:05] ready to get into our apparatus and to get out onto the street without having to wait
[1:16:11] because there's a line of traffic or there's a delivery truck.
[1:16:16] All right, enough on response time.
[1:16:19] Do you want to take this?
[1:16:20] So what happens if we don't proceed now?
[1:16:26] Well, we've already spent 3.5 million on design and studies and upgrades to where we're
[1:16:33] currently trying to get funding.
[1:16:35] If we do not get it, there's no way that my current facility nor the fire facility can survive
[1:16:43] eight more years.
[1:16:45] It is not vital.
[1:16:47] It will not work.
[1:16:48] We're probably two to three years out from a major level.
[1:16:52] We would need to do remedial for both mold, lead date,
[1:16:56] asbestos, firemen catching heat.
[1:16:57] We don't need any of the state.
[1:16:59] Building those ones, we don't have any storage currently,
[1:17:02] we'd have to build up.
[1:17:04] We'd have to get trails put on,
[1:17:06] and buy it.
[1:17:08] The pretzels to see me catching me because of the boundaries
[1:17:10] you were supporting all in both facilities.
[1:17:13] Again, there's no way to fix ADA issues.
[1:17:16] So, there's a state regulation that if you spend 30% upgrading a town bill, 30% of its
[1:17:27] values, in other words, the estimate of what that bill was doing.
[1:17:31] My current bill was worth more than $50,000.
[1:17:35] Once you get the $240,000, the one man didn't think they got building code to find anything,
[1:17:41] which we're talking about, both $5 million as in the bill meeting that either one of us tends to be
[1:17:49] vital in 15 years, with $10,000,000 that will come to you to just leave them operational
[1:17:56] and from the supply to these kinds, they won't let me be a waste of that as I've tied them,
[1:18:03] because we'll be right back if so fine, and then you get.
[1:18:13] Yeah, and I think the chief talked about this, you know, do we have concerns about building a 36-line
[1:18:18] broke road? We do not. And we've been in this, well, I've been in this almost on a daily basis
[1:18:25] for five years. The chief has been in it for, you know, a lot longer and members of the committee have been doing it for
[1:18:30] over 10. But we're not building on wetlands. We are well outside the wetlands. We have full conservation
[1:18:37] commission authority and approvals, they would never let us build on the wetlands.
[1:18:41] We have no reason to think it would sink.
[1:18:44] It is fully on upland soils.
[1:18:48] Will hazardous waste be washed from our apparatus or from our equipment or gear?
[1:18:53] Into the wetlands, absolutely not.
[1:18:55] The apparatus floor has a drain system, the sinks have a drain system.
[1:19:00] It goes into a oil water separator and it goes into the sewer system, not into wetlands.
[1:19:07] Just like every other building that's updated and missed in the town of it, I will tell you nothing new to us today
[1:19:15] All the stuff that comes out of our building. I don't know that I want to tell you where it's going
[1:19:23] Do we have concerns about the size of the building and the future and future expansion and what?
[1:19:29] Absolutely not this building has double the size of the apparatus floor that we currently have it has six bunks
[1:19:35] So we have privacy, but it has room if we need for storm coverage and so forth.
[1:19:40] We could house up to 24, it has appropriate office space so that supervisors can have conversations with employees with privacy and with dignity.
[1:19:50] We can meet with citizens for citizen complaints and concerns.
[1:19:54] It has a training room as we discussed and it has plenty of storage space for supplies, ammunition, equipment, et cetera.
[1:20:01] There were times throughout this five years, as we went through schematic design and design
[1:20:07] development and construction documents.
[1:20:10] We have had so many iterations of this plan that yes, there were times where we weren't
[1:20:15] sure if we were going to have enough space.
[1:20:17] We talked about, gee, are we going to have to keep 55 Central Street as storage?
[1:20:23] We talked about all that.
[1:20:25] Those issues have been resolved.
[1:20:26] We have mezzanine space.
[1:20:27] we have closets, we have enough storage space in this building to satisfy what we need.
[1:20:34] And we talked about all of this, an appropriate training room,
[1:20:38] crime lab, evidence storage, decontamination zones, ADA accessible,
[1:20:43] privacy for firefighters, female firefighters and officers and public restrooms.
[1:20:48] And again, additional resources, this is available on the Public Safety Facility website,
[1:20:54] this HKT study. It has a ton of information. There are ICAM videos that the chief and I made
[1:21:02] back in 2023 as well as Chairman Weatherall and Jamie Paye from the Finance Committee.
[1:21:09] That is on our website. The Public Safety Committee frequently asks questions. I have copies of
[1:21:15] it up here. Please take one before you leave if you like. That's also on the website that was
[1:21:21] was done by Rod Donahue, and then we just shot the chief, did the police station and Deputy
[1:21:29] Emerson and I did the firehouse, did ICAM videos that are pretty lengthy.
[1:21:36] They go through a lot of what we just went through as far as the existing building, but
[1:21:41] you get to see it in full color video, and they're about 50 minutes each, but they're cutting
[1:21:47] They're also going to have a version that's like 15 minutes each to just kind of hit the highlight so those will be available very shortly.
[1:21:54] Please, please, please email us, call us, stop by the firehouse or the police station.
[1:22:01] Our email addresses are there. We're happy to show you around our buildings.
[1:22:06] And we really appreciate your time today coming out. We appreciate everybody at home.
[1:22:11] It's going to watch this now live and then watch it again on the weekend or whenever you have time to watch it and
[1:22:18] I think that's all we have.
[1:22:20] I'd like to push again.
[1:22:23] If anybody doesn't believe what we're trying to show, we're doesn't look at the videos and doesn't think it's that bad.
[1:22:28] Please come by our stations.
[1:22:30] I would love to want to allow this.
[1:22:32] Make sure you wear comfortable shoes and go keep your mind open because it's it's pretty sharp
[1:22:39] not what we have to deal with in a different basis.
[1:22:42] To your deck, I speak, you might own the portion of it.
[1:22:47] Great, I'll have to face it.
[1:22:51] So we brought you a bit from here.
[1:22:54] Sure, so Massachusetts State Building Code said,
[1:22:59] it's been 30% of the assess value of a building
[1:23:03] trying to do upgrades.
[1:23:05] You must be building code complying
[1:23:08] on all sides. And so with the 10th building, the just went into effect, we would have to make
[1:23:16] our entire facility ready for the 10th building code, and that would be multiple million
[1:23:21] dollars to try to get us there. I'm not sure how they would do it. You would have to really
[1:23:27] come by going around and they're going to let them soar in at midnight because there's
[1:23:32] I don't know where to make it, but it's quiet because it's public way to street.
[1:23:37] So I'm not sure how you do it, but we get one of the studies about that in the second
[1:23:42] quarter.
[1:23:43] And the building is our starting to be viewed.
[1:23:45] Yeah.
[1:23:46] For the bulk.
[1:23:47] Yeah.
[1:23:47] Because there's no brown house, there's three to four feet of gap, which we have made for
[1:23:51] in the attic already, that's good, so that's great.
[1:23:59] We're happy to take any questions you have.
[1:24:01] I don't know if maybe coming to the mic might be best only because that way people at home can hear you
[1:24:07] Or we can give you maybe we can give you a mic too. Can we do that?
[1:24:11] I'd say if it's not a issue. Let's if you're able to get to the mic
[1:24:15] Please do if if it's a problem we can bring you one
[1:24:20] Okay, my name is Cheryl clap back up. I live on Pleasant Street and I just had a couple questions
[1:24:28] I know some people in the neighborhood complained about the design
[1:24:32] Okay. I'm just curious why like towns don't share plans. I would think that would save money.
[1:24:41] You know, like Essex is beautiful. Wally is beautiful. I know we might need a different size but
[1:24:49] couldn't they accommodate the plans to make it bigger?
[1:24:55] Well, I think it's a good question. Thank you
[1:24:58] for it, Cheryl. And I think there's a couple of issues with that. One is that in order for us to
[1:25:06] did a project, we have very strict procurement laws that we have to abide by. And so we have to go
[1:25:15] out and hire an architect based on those procurement laws. And you know, whether or not the architect that
[1:25:23] design the Essex building did on us or wanted to bid on the Ipswich Public Safety Facility
[1:25:31] is, you know, the only reason that they would be allowed to bring their plans here is
[1:25:37] if that's who we hired and we can't just, you know, unfortunately go out and pick someone
[1:25:41] that's got to go through a procurement law.
[1:25:44] The other thing that comes to mind is that the topography is certainly different for,
[1:25:53] let's say, where the Rowley building is versus where our building currently is.
[1:25:59] So I think that depending on where you're going to site the building,
[1:26:05] I think that has a lot to do with how you use the topography and how you're going to design the building.
[1:26:14] Can I ask why there's a flat all flat roof I know that's I mean we have snowstorms we have heavy wet snow so why don't we have the nice the nice roof lines with the tin roof so that the snow can slide off instead of you've got all these separate little buildings.
[1:26:37] So, you would mention that when you book rallies station as well as assets, they're a third
[1:26:43] of the size of our facility.
[1:26:44] You could expand that.
[1:26:45] Sure.
[1:26:46] But in order to carry that roof line, the roofs would have been higher than the current
[1:26:52] shut.
[1:26:53] The roof line, in order to make the feet what you're requesting, not to mention it would have
[1:26:58] been absolutely dense things.
[1:27:00] They did not have done anything with it, but you still have to keep that.
[1:27:03] As you go to schools, because water breaks often you get out of the window, because they have dead space above the ease that it's not here.
[1:27:12] Flat roof, there's a lot of flat, there's a piece of it.
[1:27:18] I got this building as a flat roof.
[1:27:19] The middle high school I think you're talking about.
[1:27:21] The middle high school, this building is a flat roof.
[1:27:24] when building downtown with the Chowbridge pub is flat roof every building
[1:27:28] downtown is a flat roof I don't know it's just it's not gonna hurt for the
[1:27:34] north. It just seems that when we build in this town it we build for a
[1:27:40] decade we I mean we are well overdue you guys need the best okay you do the
[1:27:47] biggest in the best I'm all for that but I you know I used to walk every single day
[1:27:52] through the high school when they were building that.
[1:27:55] Oh, is that 30, around 30 years ago?
[1:27:57] 99, 99.
[1:27:58] Yeah, so it's the last building in the general.
[1:28:00] You know, so then my first grant order just graduated
[1:28:04] and the school's a mess.
[1:28:06] The floor's a cracked, sinking, water leaks, 30 years old.
[1:28:13] I'm off for the best, and I know it's gonna cost us,
[1:28:16] but we need to build to last.
[1:28:18] Look at this building here, right?
[1:28:20] My mother-in-law, who's deceased, would be 120 years old.
[1:28:24] She graduated from his school here.
[1:28:26] They built them to last, we don't build to last.
[1:28:29] We spent money 20 years for now.
[1:28:31] It's like the floor is a sinking, the roof's a leaking.
[1:28:34] I think that's one of my biggest concerns.
[1:28:39] Yeah, we couldn't agree with you more.
[1:28:41] As a matter of fact, since day one, we have said,
[1:28:45] we need to have long-lasting durable materials
[1:28:49] in this building, 100%, which is why it's not a stick-built building and that's what Raleigh and
[1:28:56] Essex are stick-built. We didn't want a wood frame building. We wanted a building like the building
[1:29:01] were currently in masonry and steel because we want, we know it's going to, it's going to be 100 years
[1:29:07] before it's which builds another public safety facility. We know it, right?
[1:29:19] It makes amazing that you're
[1:29:19] Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it.
[1:29:28] Ken Pierrington of the Limber of Pierrington's, I'm wondering if you might go back to the floor
[1:29:34] plan, the blueprint and show us where the marine division would be. I was told that we were
[1:29:40] going to be able to store boats for cold weather rescue, but I didn't see that when you were describing it.
[1:29:51] So Ken, the main patrol boat will not fit in any boat. It's too big on the trailer. It's like
[1:29:58] 37 feet high.
[1:30:00] Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[1:30:03] Aye.
[1:30:07] 16 foot aluminum and the rip graft and then the 16 foot aluminum will be in those that will be responding year-round.
[1:30:18] Next slide up.
[1:30:21] That's the harvest office right there.
[1:30:24] You guys are going off the space, harvest slash selfish.
[1:30:27] He's going to have his own dedicated space in office there.
[1:30:30] Okay.
[1:30:30] There is a quantity of there and then the smaller boats will be inside.
[1:30:34] The big boat is just too big to keep getting, and it wouldn't use that in the fawn.
[1:30:39] We're dealing with most of the clamors and things, so that's why those boats are always active.
[1:30:44] But the longer that I'm going to rip them off.
[1:30:47] I understand. I just hadn't heard you mention it, and I wanted to bring it up.
[1:30:50] Yeah, and just to add on chief nickuses.
[1:30:53] And our fire rescue boat will be in one of these backpays.
[1:30:56] And interestingly enough, that I didn't mention, but currently our fireboat, our fire
[1:31:04] rescue boat is located in the wintertime at Linebrook station.
[1:31:08] So from say, you know, November through April, when we get a call for someone in distress
[1:31:17] out in the bay or in a river, and typically we both tend to respond.
[1:31:22] We have to drive from 55 Central Street to 330 Linder Road, the boat, and then respond back because we have no place to keep that boat in the winter time because where it is right now is an attempt.
[1:31:37] And we can't really keep it outside an attempt in the winter time.
[1:31:40] That's where we keep our blow truck is outside under a tent.
[1:31:43] So we put it because it's not heated by it's it's actually just three sides so we take the marine unit and put it out the line
[1:31:50] But wrote it is it's significant delay to get to deploy a marine craft from November through
[1:31:58] Through March, you know into April before we bring marine one back to fight what is here
[1:32:04] We're going to hook up squad two and we will be out the door and lessen a minute on on way on the way to
[1:32:11] were of the problem. Well, thank you. You answered my question. It's important that we
[1:32:17] had that facility for all those boats. While I'm here, Chief Parisi, you mentioned earlier
[1:32:24] what you were showing the slides of what the buildings were going to look like. You had said that,
[1:32:29] you know, you had gotten the inputs from the community. The pictures that you were showing don't look
[1:32:33] like the pictures that I see. Yeah. Now, if you go through these slides, it doesn't. The pictures
[1:32:40] that I've seen don't indicate there's going to be brick on all four signs, but the pictures you're
[1:32:45] showing do. You can see you slide.
[1:32:51] It's very difficult to see. This is actually metal panels.
[1:32:56] But it's actually, it's red. We wanted to make it the similar color to the brick, but it's
[1:33:05] This will be brick because it's the training tower.
[1:33:09] This will be metal panel.
[1:33:11] This will be brick.
[1:33:13] So some of it will be brick.
[1:33:15] And you have pine swamp right side.
[1:33:18] Pine swamp side is currently a combination of metal panel and brick.
[1:33:23] So this is brick.
[1:33:28] And I believe that side is brick until I think this is all brick.
[1:33:31] This is the only metal panel side is essentially the rear pitches that I had seen
[1:33:36] Look like it was the whole back here was shows break is not
[1:33:41] I'll have to take a second. Okay. Yeah, this this is the most up-to-date
[1:33:46] Brick wraps around to this corner, I believe and then this is metal panel that's metal panel across the back and
[1:33:52] you get to the training tower. This is all machinery, though, down below because we want to make
[1:33:58] sure that it's durable. Yeah, protective and durable. The metal panel up here was, it was a less
[1:34:06] expensive option, which, you know, we still are trying to fit within a budget. So, but yeah, that's...
[1:34:15] The other thing's important to note that there's going to be like landscaping around this and screening.
[1:34:22] This is just so you could see what it is. So coming down Pine Swap Road, there's going to be a true line there.
[1:34:28] So eventually it's going to shadow all the certain part of the area and stuff that that's
[1:34:34] something to consider. But in order to show you look like it is in a footprint, you don't put those, you don't put
[1:34:45] Thank you very much, Dan.
[1:34:51] Good evening, my teacher, Cephy.
[1:34:53] And I want to thank you both for the presentation.
[1:34:55] I think I cleared up a lot of questions that I had.
[1:34:58] And I think that if switch needs to be ahead of our time now
[1:35:01] and follow our neighbors and upgrade our public facilities,
[1:35:05] just like all the neighboring towns have done,
[1:35:07] the question I have is, when do we go from here?
[1:35:10] I know there's this September meeting
[1:35:12] and I've been following the papers.
[1:35:13] I'm sort of a new resident of switch.
[1:35:15] So there was a petition that came out regarding Winthrop that obviously doesn't have much merit at this point because it's not available.
[1:35:23] So what happens on the eith? Is it a public hearing? Is it a public vote also? And if it's a public vote, how did they vote?
[1:35:31] I mean, is it put a hands up or is it something we go to booth or you know, I want to make sure it's done properly.
[1:35:36] Because it seems like this is a very important vote coming up.
[1:35:39] Yeah, thank you very much for the question.
[1:35:41] So September 8th, Tuesday September 8th at the middle high school at seven o'clock will
[1:35:48] be the town meeting.
[1:35:49] It's a special town meeting that the select board authorized to address this specific issue.
[1:35:54] So it's my understanding and the manager may jump in if I'm speaking incorrectly, but there
[1:36:00] will be two articles that will be presented to the body.
[1:36:03] One will be to see if the town will rate appropriate to some of $9.8 million to fund the rest of this building and that would be through bond and also to transfer $500,000 from the capital reserve fund that was from our funds that was previously authorized by the select board and use that that funding as well.
[1:36:30] That's Article 1, I believe, and then Article 2 is a citizens petition, which is to, I guess, I'll summarize it to the best of my knowledge, which is to essentially deauthorize the use of any funding for a public safety facility that is constructed at 36 Linebrook Road.
[1:36:55] And has this become, has this come to vote once before?
[1:36:59] I mean, it was a close vote, if not, I don't know if I'm correct on that, but it's a very close vote, is that right?
[1:37:05] It is, we voted on May 12th, and we, because it's a bond issue, it requires 66 and 2 thirds per cent, and we lost by 8 votes.
[1:37:18] That's what I understood.
[1:37:19] So if the petition doesn't, if the petition fails, which, if it's not available, it should fail, right?
[1:37:26] We've already spent a lot of money on architectural plans and engineering and everything that goes with that.
[1:37:33] But it sounds like the Pine Swap road deal should go forward, right?
[1:37:40] And how do they vote?
[1:37:41] Is it a ballot?
[1:37:42] But I've been to town folks where they raise their hand and that doesn't necessarily work.
[1:37:49] So thank you for the questions.
[1:37:51] I'm going to back up to the start of the explanation.
[1:37:55] Chief 4EC covered most of the information, but I think it will all tie together.
[1:38:00] So the special town meeting on September 8th is actually a three-worn article town meeting.
[1:38:08] All three pertain to the public safety facility.
[1:38:10] And that still needs to be finalized by the select board so that could potentially change
[1:38:16] with the draft warrant that we have queued up for the select board is essentially the
[1:38:21] same ask from May, the big question, Article 1, which is the additional $9.8 million in
[1:38:29] borrowing capacity that is required to fully fund the cost of the proposed facility that
[1:38:36] you all have seen tonight. In addition to funding $27.5 million, I believe there was approved
[1:38:41] a number of years ago in 2021. There have been some supplemental appropriations from reserves
[1:38:47] of free cash. There also was federal funding called ARPA funding that the town had and utilized
[1:38:54] for the project. However, because of the timing of the legal action that was taken pertaining
[1:39:02] to this proposal. There was a deadline to use the federal funding that would have passed,
[1:39:07] and so the town essentially swapped some of that federal funding with other reserve funding
[1:39:14] to put the federal funding toward capital improvement, some of it, and then hold funding in a reserve
[1:39:21] knowing that eventually that would need to come and be appropriated as part of the total funding.
[1:39:27] So that's the second question.
[1:39:29] That's really just more accounting than anything.
[1:39:32] It's money that's already been authorized,
[1:39:33] it's just coming from this reserve source,
[1:39:36] and we initially were going to have the entire amount
[1:39:39] come from the federal ARPA funds.
[1:39:41] So really the big question is Article 1,
[1:39:44] Article 2 is more of an accounting procedure.
[1:39:46] Article 3 is a citizen petition,
[1:39:49] which says that the language of the petition
[1:39:51] would prohibit the use of funding
[1:39:54] that was previously authorized for this public safety facility, town council has a pine that
[1:40:01] if there was a motion in line with the language that was submitted, it would be unenforcement.
[1:40:07] And I think that's important to clarify that the question Article 1 presents as essentially does
[1:40:12] the town want to put forth the additional funding required to complete this project.
[1:40:19] If there's a desire to put a public safety facility at any other site, there would need to be an
[1:40:24] an entirely new process, new amounts of funding authorized for design and an entirely new appropriation for construction.
[1:40:34] The town couldn't take this money and then start at another facility.
[1:40:39] There would need to be an entirely new process and an entirely new set of town meeting authorizations.
[1:40:44] So, as far as process, they vote on the first ballot first, and as they do it first,
[1:40:53] what if you want to call it, Lawrence, thank you.
[1:40:57] So if the first warrant goes through, there's no reason for a third warrant.
[1:41:01] Correct.
[1:41:02] Well, if it didn't go on, and then if I could expand that in a little bit, how do they vote?
[1:41:07] Is it a ballot?
[1:41:08] Is it a raise of hands?
[1:41:09] I mean, if you were only talking about six votes that were lost by last time, it should
[1:41:14] be accurate. I'm wondering how is it handled? So there are these clickers we call them essentially
[1:41:20] they're electronic voting devices looks like a little mini TV remote so town meeting as you
[1:41:27] may know is open to any register code like down where our shows up so long as they're registered
[1:41:32] voter is eligible to participate in that specific town meeting. We bill once they sign in given
[1:41:38] and a flicker or a little bit of it.
[1:41:40] At it.
[1:41:41] Got it.
[1:41:41] I'm going to allow you both, yes and no, on the varsity.
[1:41:45] That's what's used to record the vote.
[1:41:47] That's what it is.
[1:41:48] Okay, that sounds accurate.
[1:41:49] Yeah.
[1:41:50] I appreciate that.
[1:41:51] Thank you.
[1:41:51] Just let me note to add detail.
[1:41:54] Chief Foresy alluded to this.
[1:41:56] This is a two-step process.
[1:41:58] Whenever the town issues debt that is excluded debt,
[1:42:02] and there are some other extensions where it's not excluded,
[1:42:04] essentially any debt that's going to raise your taxes a little bit
[1:42:07] more to pay that debt service. Town meeting needs to vote by a 2-thirds majority to approve it
[1:42:12] and then the whole town needs to approve it by a simple majority at the ballot box.
[1:42:18] So in addition to the town meeting vote that's going to take place on September 8th,
[1:42:23] there's also the regular election specific to this one question. So it's a special election but it's
[1:42:29] election is if you were voting for any other office. That's going to be held at the YMCA on September
[1:42:35] number 20 a second.
[1:42:36] No, I appreciate the explanation.
[1:42:38] And thanks again for the presentations.
[1:42:47] I was just wondering what the plan is for the police station and the fire building that
[1:42:53] we have now.
[1:42:54] What is the plan for that once this goes through when you move, do we sell it, do we,
[1:43:00] I mean, what is that going to cost, just so to carry out?
[1:43:03] That has not been decided yet.
[1:43:04] because that was my the charge that we would do by the front door, back in 2016, we were told to
[1:43:13] research, design, and fund a new public safety building. Our current facilities
[1:43:19] I'm sure that the Tom will put together another committee who will determine
[1:43:23] do they sell them? Do they develop them into something else? That's a discussion for later.
[1:43:30] We've heard, I think, you know, off the early light.
[1:43:35] It's a different process, and while it's all part of the town's money, that comes live.
[1:43:43] She will look away, but I'll get them up there.
[1:43:45] Is there an absentee vote?
[1:43:53] There's no absentee voting at town.
[1:43:56] You need to show up to the town meeting and be present.
[1:43:59] For the ballot, yes.
[1:44:01] Yes, please reach out to the town's town clerk's office if you have any questions, but essentially they are going to, I believe, mail out ballots if they haven't already mailed them out to those who requested them for all elections, inclusive of municipal state and federal and there are other options, even if you didn't request a ballot, if you're not going to be available on September 22nd, I'm not exactly sure what the early voting options are, so I want to defer to the town clerk's office, but
[1:44:31] But if you have a concern about not being able to vote in present on September 22nd, please
[1:44:37] reach out to the town clerk's office.
[1:44:38] There are options for absentee voting or other ways to make sure your votes counted.
[1:44:47] There are any other questions?
[1:44:50] We're happy to stay all night.
[1:44:54] Thank you.
[1:44:55] Thank you very much.
[1:44:57] Thank you very much.
[1:44:59] for those...
[1:45:00] We are watching on ICAM. We really appreciate you watching, and please reach out to Chief Nick at Survive, if you have any questions. Have a great night. Thank you.