Infrastructure upgrades are on the way at North Haven Fire Department’s (NHFD) Northeast Co. 4 station, thanks to a $300,000 voluntary payment from Quinnipiac University (QU).

The NHFD station located at 366 Washington Ave. will receive multiple infrastructural upgrades thanks to the “tremendous generosity” of the university, said First Selectman Mike Freda. Freda thanked QU President Judy Olian and Vice President for Strategy and Community Relations Chief of Staff Bethany Zemba for the payment, the first of two North Haven is receiving between now and the end of the 2025 fiscal year.

“They came to me and offered not only the voluntary payment of $300,000 for the fiscal year ending 2024 but also pledged that we would receive an additional voluntary payment for the fiscal year ending 2025,” said Freda.

Freda added that there is an “amount to be determined” on next year’s voluntary payment.

Bethany Zemba, vice president for strategy and community relations and chief of staff at Quinnipiac, told the Courier that “Quinnipiac recognizes the dedication of our fire fighters, and we are pleased to be able to support them in this way.”

The $300K payment invested in the station follows a trend in past financial support from the university, all of which has been directed towards other areas of town benefitting multiple demographics.

“They’ve not only supported public safety here, but they’ve also subsidized new playscapes at our schools, including a handicap-accessible place gate for visually impaired children at Ridge Road,” said Freda. “They’ve been, through their voluntary payments, an important factor of improving certain aspects of this community, whether they be playscapes for children or public safety.”

With this recent payment adding onto past funding for the Northeast fire station, infrastructural improvements will take shape in the form of sheetrocking and electrical work on the top floor, as well as the installation of a fire pole from the top level to the bottom of the facility.

According to Fire Chief Paul Januszewski, the second floor has been “essentially unusable” since it was “gutted in preparation for a full remodel over 10 years ago.”

Along with needed structural and systemic repairs, the utility of the station will go further with a new kitchen, bathrooms, and multiple sleeping quarters that can be “comfortable” for male and female firefighters, said Januszewski.

Constructing living quarters at the station for future career firefighters can also fulfill a missing “social aspect,” said Januszewski, in the service amongst personnel.

Quinnipiac’s payment adds to past funding for improvements at Northeast station. This includes a Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant totalling $427,512 awarded to the NHFD last September to aid in the design and construction of a four-bay garage with enough space to house equipment and a training apparatus, as Januszewski envisioned.

Providing sufficient training space at the station was seen as a worthwhile project by Quinnipiac, who underwrote the cost of such space several years ago, said Freda.

“That training center was very important to us in town and our fire department because it developed on-site in the North Haven training facility versus having to have our firefighters go to New Haven to train on various drills, which are very important to fire service,” said Freda.

As considered previously with the STEAP grant, the voluntary payment will support the expediency of the fire department’s response to an emergency in the northern part of Washington Avenue, where economic development is active. With an area growing with new businesses and apartments, proximate public safety quarters for more town firefighters are essential, especially since it is a location with no fire hydrants, according to Januszewski.

With the addition of the fire pole and proximate facilities, response time to an emergency at a nearby business or apartment building will be faster than that of a more southerly positioned station like the main one on Broadway.

“Time is really of the essence in terms of responding to those structures for any type of fires. That includes medical as well,” said Januszewski. “By cutting down on the response from a northeast response station [as opposed to] from Broadway, it cuts the time down in half.”

While response from Broadway to a northeasterly emergency may require 10 minutes, Januszewski estimates that a response from a nearby station would be cut in half.

With a fire station on the northern part of Washington Avenue firmly established in a developing area of North Haven, Freda said the town “can be assured” future economic growth and a growth in fire personnel.