Rutland Herald
By Lola Duffort
STAFF WRITER | July 08,2016
STAFF WRITER | July 08,2016
KILLINGTON — The Select Board has approved $3,000 to survey a potential site for a new, long-sought fire station.
The site had originally been dismissed by town officials and the town’s Fire Department Facilities Review Committee because of concerns over access, Killington officials said, but reassurances by the Vermont Agency of Transportation that signalization could be arranged have sent the town back to the Route 4 site for a second look.
The $3,000 expenditure would be split between the town’s general operating budget and the fire department, according to minutes from last week’s Select Board meeting. It will pay for an engineering firm’s survey of the parcel, which is somewhere between the Killington access road and Our Lady of the Mountains Church. Officials declined to provide more specific information about the parcel’s location given that it could be the subject of negotiations.
The survey should be concluded by the end of July, Town Manager Deborah Schwartz said.
Vito Rasenas, a member on the fire station committee, said the survey was a positive step forward in what had been a prolonged but productive process.
The committee has been at work since 2014, and Rasenas said it had made some significant progress — from checking out how other towns had designed their new stations, vetting potential sites, to doing public relations work with the community to convince them the expense was necessary. Another site is also under consideration, Rasenas said, although the committee’s attention has turned to the site being surveyed in the wake of the state’s communication with the town.
“Hopefully, we can get it on the ballot next town meeting day,” he said.
Town officials say the fire department’s current station, built in the 1970s, fails to meet a number of fire code and safety regulations, with issues ranging from plumbing and electrical problems, to the size of building and parcel. The committee decided early last year renovations wouldn’t be cost effective and fail to solve the station and site’s basic capacity problems.
lola.duffort
@rutlandherald.com
The site had originally been dismissed by town officials and the town’s Fire Department Facilities Review Committee because of concerns over access, Killington officials said, but reassurances by the Vermont Agency of Transportation that signalization could be arranged have sent the town back to the Route 4 site for a second look.
The $3,000 expenditure would be split between the town’s general operating budget and the fire department, according to minutes from last week’s Select Board meeting. It will pay for an engineering firm’s survey of the parcel, which is somewhere between the Killington access road and Our Lady of the Mountains Church. Officials declined to provide more specific information about the parcel’s location given that it could be the subject of negotiations.
The survey should be concluded by the end of July, Town Manager Deborah Schwartz said.
Vito Rasenas, a member on the fire station committee, said the survey was a positive step forward in what had been a prolonged but productive process.
The committee has been at work since 2014, and Rasenas said it had made some significant progress — from checking out how other towns had designed their new stations, vetting potential sites, to doing public relations work with the community to convince them the expense was necessary. Another site is also under consideration, Rasenas said, although the committee’s attention has turned to the site being surveyed in the wake of the state’s communication with the town.
“Hopefully, we can get it on the ballot next town meeting day,” he said.
Town officials say the fire department’s current station, built in the 1970s, fails to meet a number of fire code and safety regulations, with issues ranging from plumbing and electrical problems, to the size of building and parcel. The committee decided early last year renovations wouldn’t be cost effective and fail to solve the station and site’s basic capacity problems.
lola.duffort
@rutlandherald.com
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