With project contracts for the new firehouse training and storage facility now awarded, volunteer firefighters will soon have a dedicated indoor space for training and an indoor storage area to protect department training props and trailers. It’s long been needed, according the department.

“It’s going to save the fire department time and bad weather won’t interfere with training,” said John Palermo of the Westbrook Volunteer Fire Department.

Until now, the department has conducted its training outside on the pavement in all weather.

The new building will be erected behind the firehouse at 725 West Pond Meadow Road, a four-acre parcel. The project’s funding comes from three sources: the fire department ($43,000), the Westbrook Foundation ($30,000), and the Town of Westbrook ($73,000).

With contracts now awarded to move forward with the project, Palermo is hopeful the building will be ready for department use by early summer.

By last week, the land behind the firehouse had been cleared and site work to prepare the building pad was about to begin. Contractor Christopher J. Hallahan, Inc., submitted the most competitive of the three quotes the town received for the site work.

On April 26, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) voted to award contracts for the building and for the electrical work. The contract for electrical work went to C. Brown and Son Electric of Westbrook for $10,500 while the award for the building went to Warner Hollister Building Company of Ivoryton at a cost not to exceed $81,901. Each of the awards were made after the town sought and received at least three bids for each project component.

The new building will be a 40- by 80-foot pole building with metal siding, a poured concrete floor, and a roof supported with trusses. It will be supplied with underground electric service, but will not have water or septic connections.

During the April 2017 Zoning Commission public hearing on the proposal, Palermo said that currently, most of the department training has been conducted outside at the north end of the fire station. With 64 members of the fire department, each of whom has to be re-certified annually, having no dedicated indoor space for training has not been an optimal arrangement.

In the past, the department conducted its training outside of the existing building on the paved parking area. With no large open interior space where training props and trailers could be stored, equipment had to be set up and taken down for each session. Once the new facility opens, the training props can remain up and ready for use inside the new building whenever needed.

“Now, the guys build props to practice skills for firefighting training. The new facility will allow the props to be kept inside,” said Palermo.

The Zoning Commission’s project approval restricted the training center’s hours of operation to between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and required that the department get a landscaping plan approved to provide additional buffering along the north and west sides of the building.

Thanks to a donation of 22 green giant arborvitaes by Clinton Nurseries to the Fire Department, the new building will have a dense, planted buffer between the fire station’s new building and the neighboring residential parcels.

Palermo said that with the site work underway and the other project contracts now approved, the fire department should be able to move in to the new training and storage facility by early summer 2018.