Citing concerns about cost, Harpswell’s Fire and Rescue Planning Committee has recommended reducing the size of a proposed emergency services facility on Mountain Road.
At a committee meeting on Monday, July 22, Andrew Hyland, principal of Portland-based Port City Architecture, presented a proposed, 13,500-square-foot layout for the facility. It included four tandem bays for emergency vehicles, six bunk rooms for crew, seven bathrooms, a dayroom and kitchen, three offices, a conference room, training area, fitness room and other features.
Hyland said the going rate for construction of public safety buildings like the one proposed is about $530 per square foot, which would put the building’s cost at nearly $7.2 million.
Harpswell officials have proposed the facility as a centrally located supplement to the town’s three independent volunteer fire departments that would offer fire and emergency medical services to the surrounding community.
Committee members, including leaders of the three fire departments, made several suggestions to reduce the building’s footprint. Their proposed changes, including the removal of some bathrooms and one vehicle bay, would reduce the size to 11,500 square feet at a likely cost of $6.1 million.
The committee members expressed concerns about the original design’s potential cost and said Harpswell doesn’t need a facility that large. They noted that the smaller garage area they proposed could be expanded in the future if necessary.
“The hard part about it is we’re trying to figure out how we can design a building that’s going to take us into the future … but we’re trying to pare it back so we can build it today,” said committee member Benjamin Wallace Jr., chief of the Cundy’s Harbor and Orr’s and Bailey Islands fire departments.
Hyland said Harpswell could probably tap into federal grants totaling $1 million to $1.5 million, which would lower the town’s out-of-pocket cost to $4.6 million to $5.1 million. Fire and rescue officials have said the proposed facility would be financed with long-term bonds to minimize the impact on taxpayers.
The committee directed Hyland to make its suggested changes and come back before it in two weeks. A follow-up meeting was scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 5, at the Town Office on Mountain Road, to go over the revised floor plan.
Town Administrator Kristi Eiane has said there will be opportunities for the public to give input on the design, and the decision about whether to build the facility would ultimately go to voters at a Town Meeting.
