WESTFIELD — On Tuesday, during a regular meeting of the Westfield mayor and council, the governing body voted to introduce a bond ordinance which, if approved, could allow the town to start moving forward with plans for a new fire department headquarters on Central Avenue.
The $750,000 bond, Town Administrator James Gildea said, will be used to purchase a small residential property measuring about .14 acres next to Sycamore Park, adjacent to the current location of the Westfield Fire Department’s second firehouse.
“This is just the first step in what will likely be a multi-year process,” Mr. Gildea said, addressing the council during Tuesday evening’s agenda-setting meeting.
The town’s current fire headquarters, a nationally-designated historic building located at 405 North Avenue West, has been the subject of some debate among local officials for several years now, said Mr. Gildea, adding that the building has long posed multiple challenges for modern-day firefighters. And while plans for the site are still a long way off from being finalized or even introduced, Mr. Gildea said Tuesday that the acquisition of the Central Avenue property would allow the town to start looking at potential options for the department in a “more real and concrete way.”
“We have been hoping to be able to purchase the Central Avenue property for some time now, but this is the first time that the owner has been willing to consider selling it,” Mr. Gildea said, adding that the site also could prove beneficial to the town’s recreation department and other community endeavors.
“It will be about two years before we know what we are going to do about the firehouse, but in the meantime, that space would still be put to good use,” Mr. Gildea said.
Preliminary concept plans for the site, Mr. Gildea said, include a firehouse with four operational bays that can be accessed from both the front and rear of the building.
“Right now, we are asking our firefighters to back very expensive trucks and apparatuses into extremely tight bays,” Mr. Gildea said. “It’s not ideal.”
Larger bays, Fire Chief Michael Duelks said, also would allow the department to maintain its fleet on town property without having to rely on outside garages and mechanics.
At this point in the timeline, Mr. Gildea said, the town has not decided whether it would want to renovate the current Central Avenue firehouse or tear it down to build something new. Even if the bond ordinance is approved, he continued, the town could ultimately decide to use another location as the fire headquarters and save the Central Avenue property for something else entirely.
“We have a lot of options on the table right now,” he said.
Both the North Avenue Fire House and the Central Avenue locations will remain in active use for the foreseeable future, Mayor Shelley Brindle said.
“I think there has been some misinformation about that, and I want to make sure that people understand that we are not closing down the fire headquarters while we make these plans,” the mayor said. “This is an important first step, but there will be a lot more discussion about all of this going forward.”
Westfield resident Frank Fusaro asked whether the town had given any consideration to asking HBC|Streetworks, the redevelopment entity behind One Westfield Place, to foot the bill for a new station house.
“These projects can cost upwards of $15 million,” said Mr. Fusaro, who serves as chair of the town’s zoning board. “Just something to think about.”
The ordinance is expected to be presented for a public hearing and final council approval at the next regular meeting of the Westfield mayor and council, scheduled to be held at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12.
