11

THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, January 17, 2020 Page 11 ASKS | from page 7 a station over in north Saugus as well. If you look at how the traffic is going that way as well … going to Lynnfield and over in that area. Q: Oh, over near the Lynnfield Tunnel. A: Yes – even just going down Walnut Street and into Lynnfield. We’re in constant gridlock all day long, so I think it [the consultant’s report] is going to say at least a third station – and possibly a fourth station. Q: Do you have enough men for a fourth station? A: No. We do not. You would have to hire more guys. But right now, as we presently stand, we could man a third fire station. Q: And there doesn’t seem to be any opposition to this. And where will the opposition come from? A: I think the opposition to this is always going to come from the budget. What you are going to hear is what it costs to hire an employee. They’re going to talk about pension costs. They’re going to talk about health insurance costs. These are things you can’t escape. So, they’re going to talk about those things. And then you’ve got to weigh that versus the safety of the town. But at the end of the day, if you save one life – especially if it’s one of your family – are those tax dollars worth it? I’ll say 100 percent of the time it is. Q: Now, have you seen any data or any studies done on response time where the town has actually been hurt because of incidents and slow response time on the west side by not having the west side fire station? A: Right now, no. I haven’t seen any data like that, but I can tell you – NFPA – 1710, it spells out and gives a guideline as to what your manpower should be and how fast your response time should be and when you should be able to get first water on a fire. And as I said earlier, when we’re having fires, we’re putting them out quicker. And we’ve got four guys on a piece of apparatus. Q: So, what does NFPA stand for? A: National Fire Protection Association. They have a standard called 1710, and that’s the standard for response time, for manpower and all of these things. It’s what it is. It’s not a law. It’s a guideline. You can use it. Sometimes a town adopts these things, and sometimes they don’t. It’s really a guideline to base things around. That’s what they [NFPA] do for a living. They do fire protection. So, I haven’t seen any data that says we’re not getting there [timely response on the town’s west side], but all you have to do is an eye test. Every minute that a fire doesn’t get water on it, it more than doubles in size, so just think about that when you have to go to the other side of town. You fight traffic. It all comes down to the time of day. Two o’clock in the morning, maybe we are getting there. Two o’clock in the afternoon, I can tell you right now … it’s going to take a while. Q: As an example, right now, the response time to get from the Central Fire Station to the Hilltop area, what would it be? A: It all depends on the time of day, but right now, if you had a station on the other side of town, and it was put in the correct spot, they could get there within two minutes. So, yeah, right now …. You’re going to have issues with response time. There is no doubt about it: Golden Hills, Upper Main Street heading towards Wakefield, North Saugus – all those places – they are out on their own, really. They’re out there on their own. Q: So, you’re talking about eight to 10 minutes or more to get from Central Fire Station to the west side of town? A: Definitely. By the time you get the call, slide the pole, get dressed, get on a piece of apparatus, respond there, get off, assess what you have, get your things in place and put water on a fire, you’re talking probably over 10 minutes. And that’s all depending on time-of-day traffic. Q: And then with the new school coming online – that’s just around the corner now … A: It is. It’s just around the corner. It’s a great thing they did with the school, no doubt about it. We definitely needed that, but between that school and the charter school there; and you got Route 1 and then you have the overpass. You just have natural barriers there that you can’t get through in a timely fashion. Route 1 is gridlock from six o’clock in the morning until 8:30 or 9 o’clock. And then it’s gridlock going the other way from 1:30 or 2 o’clock to 5:30 or six o’clock [p.m.], sometimes even seven. So, it’s never easy. You’re a station short. That’s what it comes down to. Q: So, what’s the most compelling argument you can make at this point for a third station? A: If you look at every department in town – most departments, not the DPW or the Fire Department, but most departments – they’ve grown. They’ve definitely grown with the town. But, like life insurance, no one thinks you need it until you do. And when you want it and call for it, you hope we get there in a timely fashion. You hope that we’re professional and know what we’re doing and that we can make a difference for the taxpayers in town. So, that’s what it comes down to; it comes down to the basic needs of the people in town. They need safety. And at the end of the day, there’s a cost for that. But the town has grown, and we need to find a way to fund this and make it happen. Q: And the best location, from your standpoint, would be in the Target area? A: The entrance to Breakheart would be the best spot – as you go in at the right-hand side. You have great access to Route 1, north and south, right there. You got great access to Golden Hills, right down the street. And even as you go to north Saugus, as you head over to Walnut Street, Lynnfield and Wakefield on that side; you got pretty good access there. So, it would definitely be a great spot for it to go. But if you had to go from Oaklandvale [previous designated spot] … I don’t think that’s optimum, but it’s still better than what we have right now. But if we’re going to do it, I hope we do it right. Q: Well, you still have that vacant house [Oaklandvale location] that the town still owns. A: Yes. Q: Okay, so the economics of it now – we’re talking ballpark – what would be needed for a new station? A: To build a new station, I’ve heard the manager throw out this number of $20 million. I can tell you, you can build a station for $20 million if you want to. If you want to spend $20 million, you can. I just went to a station in Burlington that was built for $9 million. It’s a four-bay station. It has everything you could ask for. They budgeted $9 million to build it, but it came under budget for something like $7.8 million. I hear a number of $20 million. You could spend that money if you wanted to [for Saugus], but I think we can do it for half of that or less. Q: And you feel you’ve got the support from the community? A: I know we do. I know we do. It comes down to the economics of it. It’s for the bean counters and the manager to sit there and put the package together and tell us how much it’s going to cost and how it’s going to affect the overall budget of the town. Like I said, we’ve had plenty of new growth – plenty of new growth – so you can’t tell me that some of that new growth couldn’t be earmarked for a third fire station. Q: From what I have observed, you seem to have the commitment from a majority of the selectmen toward the project. A: We do. Always. You’d have to be insane not to be on board with this. At the end of the day, when you get behind closed doors, it’s going to come down to dollars and cents. You’re going to hear pension costs. You’re going to hear health insurance costs. You’re going to hear all these things. And we’ll sit down, and I will listen to their arguments and we’ll go from there. So, yeah, I’m optimistic. I’m more optimistic now than I’ve ever been that this is going to get done. And I truly believe the manager wants to do it, but he wants the documentation and the blessing of all of the government bodies before he commits to something like this. How can he not want it? How can he not want the town to be safer? How can he not want the firefighters to be safer? How can he not want the people who live on that side of town to have the protection that they deserve? Of course he wants that. And I know he does. We’ll go from there. Like I said, baby steps. I don’t get too excited about this stuff anymore. It’s baby steps. It comes down to everyone being on the same page, striving for a common goal. If we can do that, then I think we can get it done. Q: A lot of the firefighters and Fire Department officers talking up the proposed station? A: We’re a young department right now, so I’ve got a lot of young guys who are really excited about this and care about it. I got to be guarded for them because I’m going into my 26th year and I’ve been hearing this talk since I got on. And we’ve been close. So, I’m always guarded with these guys because I want it. But they’re really excited about it, too. Any time you can have growth like that, it provides more opportunities to do more things on the Fire Department as well. There’s a lot of excitement, no doubt about it. We’re keeping our fingers crossed. Let’s take baby steps and hope we can get the ball rolling this spring. That’s what I’m hoping. Q: Okay, so something at Town Meeting and maybe in the budget that Town Meeting will vote on. A: Yes. Hopefully. Q: Anything else that you would like to say about this project? A: I just want to tell the people that at the end of the day, put yourself in the situation where someone you love or something you own is in trouble and every minute counts. You’re not going to care how much anything costs at that point. You are hoping it’s there. So, open up your minds and look at the big picture and please support this and do what’s right for the town and what’s right for you. That would be it.

12 Publizr Home