FIRE COMPANY NEEDS NEW STATION
Aging infrastructure, lack of space prompts request for a study
UPPER GWYNEDD » It’s a big conversation, one that could impact Upper Gwynedd for decades, and the first step was taken Monday night.
Upper Gwynedd’s Fire Department and township officials have started talks on where, when and how to replace the company’s fire station.
“We can’t be thinking about 2022. We’re in fact thinking about 2052: 30, 50, even 75 years down the line, and what does fire service look like to Upper Gwynedd Township?” said fire Chief Eric Geiger.
The township’s current fire station on Garfield Avenue was built in sections, Geiger told the township’s commissioners on Monday night, with the 2,736-square-foot portion now used as a banquet hall, on the left-hand side of the complex facing the front of the building, constructed in 1942.
“In 1963, we built what is now the current engine room, the portion to the right, and then in 1972 there was a small gear room that was put in. Subsequently, as the department grew over the years, obviously bunker gear also got bigger and more cumbersome, and we needed more room for that,” he said.
A rear addition was built behind the station frontage in 1997, bringing the total area to just over 10,000 square feet, and the fire company now owns a total of four parcels totaling roughly 1.75 acres on and surrounding the current station. The list of problems with the current facilities is a long one, Geiger told the township commissioners, with the current station far out of compliance with current national standards for similar facilities.
“The infrastructure, it’s built on 1942 bones, and it has 1942 bones, and it certainly displays them. We have issues with the roof as well, and obviously as time has evolved, safety protocols have evolved,” he said.
“Every rainstorm, we have buckets out there, collecting water from the ceiling. The design, back in the day when that was built, was poorly designed, but we’re stuck with a flat roof,” Geiger said.
Other problems include the space for vehicles in the main engine bay, where firetrucks are kept so close together they can’t open their doors at the same time, and a lack of vertical space above the engines to lift the cabs. The station also has an outdated underground fuel storage tank, façade peeling, heating and cooling systems that township staff have helped repair, and cracks in the front driveway
apron.
“Clearly, trucks got heavier as the years went on. Back in 1942, when it was a horse and buggy or whatever, (vehicles) were much lighter than what we’re running across there now,” he said.
The station is also listed as a township fallout and emergency shelter, which would require an emergency generator and backups that need upgrades. Few parts are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act since the station was largely built before that law was passed; the exhaust system and floor of the station both need modernizing, and the current station doesn’t have enough space for gear storage, decontamination areas, or training.
“The current floor was put in back in 2008, on an anniversary year. It was supposed to be slip-resistant. Well, they lied when they put that in, because it is definitely not slip-resistant,” he said.
Next to the firehouse, the department also owns a house used for living quarters, with three offices so firefighters can work-from-home and stay close to the station when responding to calls, and Geiger said the fire company’s current all-volunteer force should also be a consideration.
“As long as l am the chief, we’ll be a 100 percent volunteer department. I can promise you that in 50 years it will not be: it will be a combination, or a fully paid department,” he said, because of the steep dropoff in volunteerism seen for fire and emergency companies nationwide.
“I started when I was 14, in Lansdale, and I can remember being the first kid at the door, and I remember seeing five or six people run out of The Reporter back then, that were members of the Lansdale fire department, and The Reporter would just let them go. The reality of 2022 is, businesses don’t do that,” Geiger said.
The house next to the station currently houses four members, who live there rent- and utility-free and commit 40 hours weekly to the company, an arrangement Geiger said works for now, but may not be sustainable forever.
“That works really well right now. They’re 21, 22, 23 years old, but they get older, they get married, they move out, so that’s a challenge to keep that going,” he said.
Call volume has also increased in recent years, as the township’s population has grown, as have the range of types of incidents the company responds to, and trends over the past three decades show those only continuing to increase. National standards for living space, as well as for the fire safety equipment, will only become more stringent, all of which led the company to establish a new building committee, comprised of firefighters of all ages, to examine future options.
“The first question we always kept circling back to is: where? Where is the firehouse, or where would it need to be in the next 50 to 75 years?” Geiger said.
Criteria for a site would include a central location in the township, so firefighters can get to the station and then firetrucks can get to calls quickly, plus being accessible to the community, and the amount of space available for a building.
As he spoke, Geiger showed the board a list of comparable stations recently built elsewhere in the county, with square footage and cost figures for each, and said the fire company has tentatively identified four possible sites for their own new station. One would be the site of the current station, two more potential sites are on Allentown Road on land currently owned by a business, while another is located off of West Point Pike near the township’s Parkside Place complex, where a private owner has said they may be interested in selling. The site on Garfield Avenue where the current station stands was low on the list for the start of the process, but Geiger said it does have strengths, including previous variances, size, and residential character close to homes where firefighters could live.
“It could present a very viable option for the future,” he said.
As for the financing, the fire company has secured estimates that the five parcels they currently own could be worth roughly $1.5 million, and the company estimates it could raise roughly $1.5 million more via a capital campaign, and/or could secure a low-interest state loan if backed by the township. Before doing so, the fire chief told the commissioners, the new building committee thought it best to bring the board and public up to speed, and seek an outside opinion.
“We decided that it would be best for a third-party, neutral entity to do a study of the municipality, to say ‘A versus B,’ ‘This is what we recommend,’ with all of those things in mind,” he said.
Private third-party firms can do so, but the building committee has recommended the township and UGFD start by contracting with the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, a state agency which can perform such studies. Doing so carries no cost, but requires a formal letter of intent, a draft of which was included in the board’s meeting materials packet for March 14, and which could be approved by the commissioners when they next meet on March 22.
“This letter says that you, as the municipality, and the commissioners, understand that you want us to talk to them, and that they’re allowed to talk to us,” Geiger said.
Resident Fred Hencken questioned whether the population estimates included in the fire company’s presentation were based on those done for the township’s 2040 comprehensive plan adopted last summer, and Geiger said they were based on average growth rates in the preceding years. Hencken then said he thought the population estimates could be revised upward or downward based on whether or not the board approves new housing construction, and commissioner Liz McNaney answered that population could also fluctuate based on who moves in and out.
“If my family of five’s moving out, maybe another family of six or seven is moving into what we already have. The single family homes, and townhomes, and all the different things that we have can play a factor,” she said.
Deputy Fire Chief Greg Rosato added one other consideration: the study may need to examine the numbers of those who work in the township, particularly at large Merck facilities whose employees may not live in Upper Gwynedd, but do commute there.