Cape Cod Times
HYANNIS, Mass.— The third time was not a charm.
The latest attempt to gain voter approval to build a replacement for the Hyannis fire station failed Saturday. It was the third rejection in seven months.
A total of 1,119 voters, double the number from the last vote in July, turned out at Barnstable High School. Sixty-four percent of voters were in favor of the project, but it was short of the two-thirds needed to pass by 29 votes, according to Hyannis Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Supervisor Michael Medeiros.
“It’s very frustrating and it’s very disappointing, because the guys, the chief and commissioners worked really hard,” said Firefighter Michael Dalmau, head of the Hyannis firefighters union and a member of the building committee.
“But we got 700 votes, I can hang my hat on that,” he continued, adding that the 1,119 overall turnout will definitely exceed the number of voters for the Nov. 4 election. About 7,000 voters are registered in the Hyannis Fire District.
The fire department was seeking to build a new, expanded fire station, and permission from voters to sell two fire district lots to keep the cost at or under $17.7 million.
One lot at 1174 Pitchers Way is owned by the fire district but has a deed restriction that requires it to be used as a fire station or with the proceeds of a sale to build a fire station, according to Hyannis Fire Chief Harold Brunelle. The second lot at 501 Scudder Ave. is an old substation that is only used for storage.
The fire district is 9.5 square miles, and the station at 95 High School Road Extension fields about 6,000 calls per year, making it the busiest on Cape Cod, according to Dalmau.
Unlike other fire stations on the Cape, the Hyannis station has only one building and that building needs up to $10 million in repairs, according to Brunelle and Medeiros.
“So now we’re looking at spending good money after bad,” to repair the existing building, Medeiros said.
Currently sewage backs up in the kitchen, Dalmau said. Female and male firefighters who sleep overnight share the same bunk room with no privacy, Dalmau said.
When first constructed in the 1960s, the fire department responded to 600 calls a year, and had only four full-time employees, Medeiros said. Now there are 54 uniformed fire department members along with 17 vehicles, three trailers and one boat that the station needs to accommodate.
About 20 people attended a preview meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday at the high school. That number grew to about 100 by around 10 a.m., when the voting began. The questions ranged from cost per square foot to the intricacies of the total cost sought in the one-article special district meeting. After the special district meeting, the voting was open until 2 p.m., with written votes deposited into a voting box.
Hyannis voter John Julius was the first to reach the microphone Saturday morning at the preview meeting, questioning the per-square-foot cost as high for national standards.
The fire officials portrayed the per-square-foot cost as increasing due to the economic recovery but still in line with other public building construction projects. A graph of seven other projects was provided to audience members.
Jullius also raised the issue of using public facilities and equipment to advertise in favor of the project. At least two electronic billboards were observed on Bearses Way and South Street urging “vote yes.” Fire officials said the issue was outside the scope of the meeting but could be addressed in another forum. The state Ethics Commission states that an appointed officer like a fire chief can use public resources to promote a project under his authority, according to Advisory 11-1, Public Employee Political Activity.
“This is a very large and extreme appropriation,” Julius said to the preview meeting attendees. Outside the room Julius said he planned to vote against the proposal.
Hyannis store owner Andi Carole told the preview meeting attendees that the Hyannis fire department had saved her Sea Street store twice, and that she supported the new fire station. There is a spiritual cost to not passing the measure, she said. “The demoralization of the firefighters is far more important,” Carole said.
The $17.7 million project coast would be $486 per square foot, officials said.
The proposed spending would have been paid as a real estate tax by landowners within the Hyannis Fire District, Medeiros said. The 30-year proposed borrowing would have been for $20.8 million, which includes $3.4 million for already-purchased land next to the station for the expansion and building design costs. For a house in the fire district assessed at $300,000, the 2016 fiscal year impact would have been $133.98, according to fire department records.
Like it or not, the public will have to accept that the current building is not going to last forever, Dalmau said after the vote.
The next move will be decided by the Hyannis Fire District Board of Commissioners, Medeiros said.
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