The challenge of getting a new fire station and a reorganized Whitefield fire department has “paid off.”
The phrase hovered over the Monday morning groundbreaking ceremony at the five-acre site beside the town office.
Building committee chair Erik Ekholm, who has worked doggedly alongside other volunteer committee members to bring the project to fruition, put out a call last week for a “golden shovel” to slice into the patch of field. While none materialized, the mood was high as successful bidder on the half-million-dollar project Tom Catalano offered a well-worn implement – a “working shovel,” he said – from his pickup truck for the symbolic occasion.
Excavation begins this week, said Catalano, of Thomaston-based Catalano’s Construction. During what he anticipates could be a four-month construction period, weather permitting, there will be from five to 20 workers involved in the building, which includes the rescue department.
“We’re going to move as quickly as we can,” said the site superintendent, whose presence will be marked by a small trailer on the property.
Fire chief Tim Pellerin commented on successes since voters approved consolidating the three fire companies into a municipal organization last March and building a central station.
That consolidation entailed taking a “good foundation and fine tuning it,” said Pellerin. Rapid response to and quick suppression of an early Saturday morning fire on Hilton Road proved the point. “Everything clicked,” he said. “The training, the enthusiasm has paid off.”
Catalano and the town have a base contract of $461,350 to construct a three-bay 48-by-60-ft. station with a 40-by-52-ft. section for meeting room, offices, toilets, showers, and washing machines.
The town has borrowed $548,144 from the Maine Municipal Bond Bank. At March town meeting, voters approved borrowing that sum and making a first payment of $31,510.
After the ceremony, board of selectmen chair Steve McCormick said the additional money will be used for the architect’s fee ($25,000), construction insurance, paving, and possibly a generator and exhaust system for truck fumes.
McCormick emphasized that the board hasn’t agreed to extras such as the exhaust system and generator, although the latter, he said, is a good idea. “We can pick what we want to do,” McCormick said, “and there might be alternatives that wouldn’t cost as much” as is possible from the remaining $87,000 portion of the loan.
A building committee proposal to create a $750,000 town center on the same plot of land was defeated at 2009 town meeting.
Other town representatives present at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking were select board members Sue McKeen and Frank Ober; building committee members Herb Hartman and Lynn Talacko, who is also EMS director and architectural designer, of Wills Royal Barry Associates; and deputy fire chief Scott Higgins.
