SAUGUS — During Special Town Meeting, one of the discussions, which has been a topic in town for around 40 years, was Article 6, which focused on the third fire station/EMS building Saugus is looking to build.
“We have completed phase one of the process for a proposed west side public safety mass response station. This includes extensive feasibility analysis, site investigations, and test fits for various-sized buildings to determine viable options that meet public safety needs,” Town Manager Scott Crabtree said.
It was said that data showed clear deficiencies in response times and this facility would address those concerns.
Crabtree also explained the situation for those who might not see the need for another building since they live close to the current ones.
“The idea is to have a public safety building that allows all of us to benefit, and everybody says, ‘Well, I live on the other side of town and it doesn’t affect me, and I have a fire station here. Why do I need a fire station… up on the other side of town?
“People need to start thinking about this globally,” Crabtree said. “Think about how this all interacts us working as a team with our emergency response public safety officers.”
He continued to explain that if you live near a fire station and they have to respond to a call in West Saugus, and a situation then happens on the other side of town, they will have difficulty getting back.
Town Meeting Moderator Steve Doherty spoke after Crabtree to announce that an amendment had been submitted for the article. Town Meeting Member Peter Manoogian went to the podium to explain the amendment.
“What the amendment does is it memorializes that in the language of the appropriation. This will be a challenge for the community. I’m sure some of us have thought long and hard about the possibility that we could be spending 1.2 million on something that the voters could say no to,” he said.
He explained that it would be a debt exclusion and a Proposition 2 1/2 override, which is something that has never been passed in Saugus.
“The voters will, in effect, be asked to raise their taxes permanently for this, for the manpower which they didn’t support back in the mid-90s. So what this does is it makes clear what our expectations are and what we will receive in the actual article, but it also will provide when it’s done the evidence,” he said.
Phase two will give the town a statement of probable cost. Crabtree said it would also cover the cost of public meetings, presentations, design solutions, prepare imagery, and artistic renderings.
“This is how you build a public safety building in Massachusetts and actually New England and everywhere else,” he said.
Town Meeting Member Robert Long headed to the podium to share his thoughts on the article.
“I’ve been following this a long, long time. I think it’s finally time to get it done. But at this point in time, we’re asking for this additional borrowing, which puts us combined with last year over $1.2 million,” he said.
Long continued that he had attended the feasibility study meeting, but he wanted to know what the makeup of the committee was and what locations were being considered.
Crabtree said that the committee was made up of the public safety chiefs, himself, the consultants, and an OPM. He continued that he wanted to keep this issue non-political and that people want to fight over where it’s going to be located.
“I think that the history of Saugus and why nothing’s moved forward… one of the reasons is that. I had somebody recently say to me, ‘if it’s not in a certain area I’m going to get all of the residents to oppose it,'” he explained. “That’s part of the problem.”
Long responded, saying, “Those of us who allocate the money are the spending body… we should have some idea of where these things are going to go.”
Crabtree and Long went back and forth for a brief discussion before the vote was taken. It was a unanimous yes for the amendment and to pass Article 6.
