FARMINGTON — Farmington voters won't be asked about new firehouses in East Farms and Unionville, and a bigger station in the village, until fall 2027. On Friday, Oct. 30, the committee planning the $30 million to $35 million project agreed to skip a spring or summer vote. Members said the volunteer chiefs need time to work out what each station requires, and the architect needs time to land on a price that holds. Waiting has its own cost, the architect warned: steel is getting scarce and expensive, and his firm is hearing that data centers are the cause.
The Fire Station Building Committee didn't vote on the date; members simply agreed. The Town Council approved the plan in May. Because the town would borrow the money, voters must approve it at a referendum, after the council signs off on the design and the cost estimate. When the committee picked its architect in October, the target was spring or fall 2027.
Why not spring
Committee Chair Brenda Bergeron, a former deputy commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, laid out the choices: "April of next year, a standalone in June, or the next November election." A standalone is a referendum held on its own.
She argued against April. With three stations to design and coordinate, she said, "we want to make sure that we have all our ducks in a row before we go to referendum," with time left for information sessions at each station. Instead of a June standalone, she suggested waiting about a year, with "everything ready to roll." That pointed to the November election.
On the architect's timetable, the price would not be ready until the end of April. Chris Nardi, the Silver Petrucelli + Associates principal managing the project, showed the committee a schedule that has the outside cost estimate running from March 8 to April 30, with information sessions starting May 1. More time, he said, would give everyone a chance to double- and triple-check the work and get on the same page, and give the town time to explain the project to residents.
Dave Wlodkowski, a Town Council member and architect who co-chaired the ad hoc committee that drew up the plan, said April could be done, but he saw no value in rushing it. "I would give the team more time," he said, along with time "for the chiefs to work with their own people."
"And my expectation from that is if we do give more time, we shouldn't have a bust in any one of these areas as far as what the final costs are," he said.
Bergeron backed him and spoke to the chiefs. "This is a really critical moment for you guys," she said, "and to try to push it too quickly, you're not going to have the time to pull this all together."
The cost of waiting
Asked whether waiting had any downside, Assistant Town Manager Kat Krajewski said it gives the town "more time to market projects, which is a benefit." If the outside estimate comes in over budget, she said, the committee will have to work the design down, and that takes time. "I don't see a downside," she said.
The only downside Nardi saw was cost. Over the past two weeks, he said, the firm has heard that steel prices are climbing and supply is scarce. Contractors on medium and large projects say they may not get steel for 12 to 16 weeks, much longer than in the past. "We're hearing it's a result of the data centers that are being built all over," he said. The firm has started looking at other structural systems that could cost less and arrive sooner if the shortage lasts, an idea Wlodkowski welcomed.
If anyone had predicted diesel at $6.60 a gallon a year ago, Wlodkowski said, "we'd be all laughing at each other." He added, "We know we're in a new environment and it's a high-cost environment."
When the council approved the plan in May, Town Manager Kathleen Blonski said the $30 million to $35 million figures did not yet account for rising costs.
Krajewski worried about a price finished in April and put to voters in November. She asked whether the estimate could come later. Nardi said the town could wait a month or two after planning ends. The firm usually builds expected price increases into its estimates, he said, but that is only a prediction. While the estimate is under way, Krajewski said, the town can tell residents it has "a maximum budget" and aims to stay within it.
Unlike school construction, fire stations come with no state reimbursement formula; that formula, Wlodkowski told the council in May, "doesn't exist for public safety." On Oct. 30 he pointed to the state budget. The legislature meets next year to adopt a two-year budget, he noted, and a later vote would give the town "a better shot for funding sources," including "grants and so forth for small towns and cities." Bergeron said the extra time would also let the committee explore federal assistance.
What the chiefs are deciding
The chiefs, among them Travis Cromack of Tunxis Hose and Mike Grabulis of the Farmington department, now have homework: a checklist from the firm of the rooms a station might hold, from truck bays and a gear wash for cleaning firefighting gear to offices, training rooms and living quarters. For each line, a department marks need, want, shared or not required.
The list includes private bunk rooms and private unisex toilet and shower rooms. Stations in the state are moving that way, Nardi said, to give departments flexibility for crews of men and women. Older stations were often designed with one men's bunk room for about 10 people, he said, with women's bunk rooms for two or three added later.
He also asked the chiefs to look for equipment the departments could share rather than buy for each station, such as the $120,000 compressor that fills firefighters' air tanks.
Farmington's department is mostly volunteers, backed by nine full-time career firefighters and EMTs. Krajewski said the town still has to decide how the career firefighters weigh in: through a few representatives, or through those assigned to each station. Bergeron said the goal is to bring the plan forward as a united front, so the committee wants any concerns raised early.
What comes next
Nardi had hoped to get the chiefs' first answers within a week and meet with them at their stations the week of Nov. 9, but he said the schedule could bend. The chiefs are to return their checklists within three to four weeks. The firm was to bring a first room list to the committee on Dec. 4, though Krajewski said that might not leave enough time.
In December, said Ryan Glick, the firm's project architect, the room lists become floor plans, followed by 3D renderings and choices of building materials. Site surveys are to wrap up around the same time, Nardi said. The design package goes to the outside estimator in March, and the estimate takes close to two months.
Going straight from the early designs to the detailed drawings contractors build from would take about 12 months, Nardi said.
The committee meets next on Friday, Nov. 20, at 9 a.m., and may tour new fire stations that day. Nardi said the firm has discussed Bristol's career station and a volunteer station in Plymouth. Later meetings are set for Dec. 4 and 18 and Jan. 8 and 22, all Fridays at 9 a.m.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered this fire station plan since the ad hoc committee handed it over and now owns a calendar with "fall 2027" circled in pencil. He is on his first coffee. ☕
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