SAUGUS — The town posted a request for qualifications for firms to conduct a feasibility study to examine building a third fire station in town, a key step forward for a long-discussed project that is inching closer to becoming a reality.
Town Meeting in May approved $400,000 for conducting the feasibility study by an overwhelming margin. The study will examine, in part, where a third station would be most beneficial to improve response times to specific areas in town, particularly west of Route 1 and north of Walnut Street. A 2021 study, completed by Municipal Resources Inc. of Meredith, N.H., found that response times to almost 40% of the town exceeded the industry standard of six minutes from either of Saugus’ two stations.
Town Manager Scott Crabtree’s office announced the advertising of the RFQ in the state Central Register Friday. A briefing session on the RFQ will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. in the Town Hall auditorium. Responses to the RFQ are due by Oct. 12 at 2 p.m.
A copy of the RFQ provided by Crabtree’s office shows more details about the town’s plans for a third fire station. It asks firms to provide at least two options for the location of a new station, which should be located on “town-owned land or land that may be easily acquired.” The firm will work collaboratively with a committee assembled by Crabtree to oversee the process, though the members of that committee, dubbed “the Manager’s Fire Station Committee” in the document, were not immediately known.
The services provided by the firm will be funded in stages, with the first phase comprising the site-selection process, the second phase comprising schematic designs and cost estimates, and the final phase, coming after Town Meeting and voter approval, to comprise “completion of the design from schematic through construction documents, bidding, construction administration, and closeout.”
Crabtree emphasized that building a third fire station and supplying it with the necessary equipment and manpower would be an enormous expense for the town, and almost certainly require a Proposition 2 ½ general override to staff the station and a debt exclusion for land and construction. He said that a location for the new station will only be chosen after a “thorough analysis of distance, travel time, and site suitability” and an open and public process, including at least one public hearing.
“We have identified the needs of a third station,” Crabtree said in the statement. “This feasibility study is an important step forward and will identify the best locations for both emergency operational efficiency and cost.”
Capt. Billy Cross, the president of the union representing the town’s firefighters, said talk of a third fire station in Saugus can be traced back to the 1970s. Now, with the posting of the RFQ, Saugus is as close as it has been in roughly two decades to the construction of a third station.
In 2003, a ballot question asking residents to support the hiring of 12 new firefighters to staff a third station failed. Cross attributed that question’s failure in part to it appearing on the back of the ballot and to a poor job by the union to convince residents that the station was a necessity.
Crabtree said the study will allow town officials to go to voters with a concrete plan for a new station come fiscal year 2025 budget season next spring.
