Port City Architecture, of Portland, will conduct a feasibility study regarding the future construction of a central emergency services facility on Mountain Road in Harpswell.
As part of the study, the firm will design the building, estimate the cost to build it, and select a specific location on town land.
The Harpswell Select Board approved the study 3-0 on Thursday, April 25. The town will pay the firm $33,465.
Port City Architecture has designed several emergency services buildings in Maine. The firm’s portfolioincludes fire stations in Cumberland, Falmouth, Gorham, Saco and Buckfield.
Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said three firms were interviewed by a committee consisting of herself, Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson, and the chiefs of Harpswell’s three independent fire departments.
David Mercier serves as fire chief for Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue, while Benjamin Wallace Jr. serves as fire chief for both the Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire Department and the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department. Each department has its own station.
The town supplements the volunteer departments’ efforts with a full-time fire administrator who also serves as the emergency management agent, two full-time firefighters, and per diem firefighters. It also contracts Mid Coast Hospital to keep a paramedic on duty in Harpswell 24/7.
The long-planned central station will expand on those efforts.
“Looking ahead, as the town starts to hire more municipal firefighters — we have an emergency management agent, a fire administrator — where are we going to put these people in a central location where they can respond to the calls in the community?” Eiane said.
She said the study will be “looking at the current operations of the fire and rescue services, where we’re going in the future, what our needs might be, and where the best location on town property, in a centralized area, would be.”
The town has been planning to locate the central station next to a garage on Mountain Road that houses the “fly car,” an SUV the paramedics use to respond to medical emergencies. However, two of the three firms raised concerns about the site.
“They didn’t think that was the best location,” Eiane said. “It looked like we were trying to shoehorn a building in that couldn’t necessarily be expanded upon in the future.” Town officials have said they want the flexibility to add on to the building.
Port City’s proposal says it will assess the town’s space needs for the next 20-50 years. Eiane said the town will seek public input on the design, and the decision about whether to build a station would ultimately go to voters at a Town Meeting.
Johnson cited the independent departments’ aging volunteer corps and struggles with recruitment as motivation to build the facility.
“Cundy’s Harbor has a severe lack of volunteers,” Johnson said. “They’re having trouble daily.” At Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue, “David’s one of the younger ones on the department,” he said, referencing fellow Select Board member David Chipman, a retiree in his 70s. The Orr’s and Bailey department is “doing alright right now,” Johnson said.
“We’ve always thought there was going to be a central station someday, for the last 40 years,” Johnson added. “Probably in the next 10 years, there’ll have to be.”
