SAUGUS — Town Manager Scott Crabtree hosted a meeting at Town Hall Monday night to discuss the feasibility study of a new public safety building.
The point of the study was to look at the best possible areas for a new public safety building to help with response times in certain areas of the town.
Crabtree started the meeting by thanking all those in attendance, including the Selectmen and public safety members.
“Since I’ve been Town Manager, part of it is having a plan… These things can take time, and we have to have experts and consultants to be able to advise us and help us make the best decisions for the town and for residents,” he said.
Crabtree explained that a committee, including the fire chief and police chief, has been meeting to discuss the feasibility study and all of the intricate processes that go into it.
PMA Consultants have been a part of the project, and Kevin Nigro, who also helped with the Saugus Middle High School project, was there to help explain the process.
“What we did was put out a scope of work that generally described what it was that we wanted to do, to verify some of the information in the past programs, (and) to start it with a fresh set of eyes based on 21st century and beyond police, fire, and EMS responses and craft with us the best fit for the time,” Nigro said.
Crabtree said that this was something that was going to have a major impact on the community, and people have been asking for it for decades.
“Our job is to identify the needs of the community that we’re hearing to be able to put a plan together,” he said.
Crabtree also emphasized that the building shouldn’t be called a fire station, because it’s going to be more than that. In the presentation, it was specifically called a “West Side Public Safety and EMS Response Facility.”
Context Architecture, the group chosen to do the study, was represented by Jeff Shaw, president and principal-in-charge, and Peter Nelson, project manager.
“Context Architecture is a firm that specializes in public safety architecture. We have to our credit dozens of these types of projects,” Shaw said.
He continued that the study’s objectives were to assess existing operations with studies that have already been done, prepare response time analyses, look at potential sites, and make recommendations for site selection.
One point that was made was that a majority of resources are on the east side of town since it was built first, leaving the west side of town a bit more bare with resources, including public safety.
When speaking about the site selection process and the sites that are being looked at, it was emphasized that all sites are being considered, and that they are looking at not what is needed now, but over the next 20 to 30 years.
“This was a really exciting project to get involved with,” Fire Chief Michael Newbury said. “I know it’s easy to say, ‘You’re the fire chief, so you should just know where the station is supposed to go.’ A lot of the information that was thrown our way was really eye-opening.”
Newbury said he would be available to answer questions during the entire process.
Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli was also there, commenting that this would help officers who are out on patrol, especially with situations happening on the northwest side.
According to Crabtree, the next steps of the process will include getting the funding, and a lot of the timeline will depend on the community and possible pushback.
Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Jeff Cicolini also spoke after the presentation, saying, “I think one of the things that is going to be most important for Saugus, and why I think we were so successful in the school project was because not only did we have unified elected officials, but we also had unified parents and teachers spreading the word.”
Resident support will be the key to the project, and it will be critical that residents view the project as beneficial to the whole town.
Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta and Selectman Michael Serino also spoke in support of the project. Selectman Anthony Cogliano and Selectman Corrine Riley were also there to show their support.
