SWAMPSCOTT — Thanks to some ingenuity and a nice team effort from members of the Swampscott Fire Department, the department’s living quarters have been completely revamped.
Swampscott Fire Chief Kevin Breen said Town Meeting in 2015 allocated about $86,000 for a remodeling project at the Swampscott Fire Station on Burrill Street, which was originally only supposed to entail removing and replacing flooring in the station’s living quarters on the second floor, along with asbestos removal.
But because the fire department members were cooperative and did a lot of the moving and work, Breen said they were able to remodel the kitchen, paint the second floor and put in some new suspended ceilings in the day room and kitchen all within the budget to replace the flooring. He estimated that there is about $4,000 to $5,000 left within the initial funds allocated.
“With a little cooperation, we got a lot of value added on this project, which is good for the town and good for us,” Breen said.
Breen gave the Board of Selectmen an update on the remodeling last week, which he said is in the final stages.
Breen said the remodeling project forced the fire department out of their second floor headquarters, or living quarters, in the fire station to the former vacant police station next door for about five months. From roughly last Thanksgiving to late March, he said they had to essentially operate outside the firehouse.
The fire chief said the headquarters includes a kitchen and living quarters — they had to dismantle the kitchen, dormitories, bathroom and offices, pack it away and dense pack 12 rooms on the second floor into six spaces to move across the driveway to the police station.
During their stay at the old police station, Breen said crews were able to get the heat turned back on there, repainted all of the second floor walls to make it more livable and were able to make the former police station more usable.
Fire Capt. Graham Archer used his skills to get the plumbing back on — the building had been frozen up one winter — and he was able to fix leaks in the system. The work in the police station didn’t cost the department any money, and was just sweat equity by fire crews, Breen said.
In the fire station headquarters, Breen said new epoxy flooring was put in the kitchen, which ensures that there won’t be damage to the floor in the high traffic area, as it can take a lot of abuse. He said new bottom cabinets were installed in the kitchen — the upper cabinets were kept. He said members of the fire department assembled the cabinets.
The fire chief said there was also some money in the department’s budget to purchase a new stove for about $5,000, which didn’t come from the Town Meeting funds.
Two cabinets were scavenged from the science wing of the former Swampscott Middle School on Greenwood Avenue and repurposed as display cases for fire department memorabilia in the day room, or lounge room, Breen said.
The chief said the project is still a work in progress and some of the remaining funds may still need to be expended. He said the department is in the process of getting the display cases painted.
Through a grant, Breen said the shared facilities director for the town and schools Michael Scola was able to change all of the lighting in the building to LED lighting.
Breen said the remodeling project was a team effort, but singled out Graham, Snow and Firefighter Todd Seligman, who helped with carpentry and installing the cabinets, for their work in the particular. Breen said he publicly recognized the department’s efforts in front of the Selectmen last week, for their work in moving and the “bull work of taking everything apart and putting it back together.”
“They put up with a lot of stuff to make this project happen,” Breen said. “(One of the) things I’m proudest about is by utilizing the members and ingenuity, we were able to leverage a lot more out of the project.”
