A giant yellow excavator took jaws to the public works building’s backyard bays this morning and pulled it down, making way for a new fire and ambulance headquarters that will rise from the site.
The new fire headquarters will be built next door to the current one on a 5.4 acre site that was formerly the location of the public works building. Public Works is now in a rental facility and a committee is studying where its permanent home will be.
Shortly before 8 a.m., under chilly skies, the wrecking crew began its work, taking down the metal building, part by part and putting like metals together so they can be sold later on. The major public works building that faces Main Street is scheduled to come down Wednesday. And the salt shed in the rear of the property will be torn down when winter finally ends.
Everyone was smiling at the Fire Department headquarters next door as the demolition began.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Fire Chief Jack Ahern. He was overjoyed, as were the men and women in the station, who have waited for years for this day to come. Groundbreaking is expected to take place next month. With any luck the project will be completed in May, 2012, Ahern told the Eagle.
Last September, the Representative Town Meeting voted 19 – 9 to approve a new $12.5 million fire headquarters to replace the dilapidated building where fire fighters now work. The Democratic majority prevailed with all nine Republicans voting to oppose to a new fire headquarters until there was a firmer plan for a permanent new home for the public works building. They steadfastly objected to the estimated $600,000 cost of moving public works off the site to another place.
The demolition project was delayed because of environmental findings, Chief Ahern and Town Engineer Janice Plaziak said.
PCBs were found in the caulking of the public works building. They had to be removed, tested, and retested until the site was declared safe. PCB’s can leach into the masonry and eventually into ground water.
“There is one more to go,” the chief said as he looked inside the public works building. “One set of caulking has not come back clean. Another test will be taken today and we expect that by Wednesday it will come back clean. But you never know.” Once it is, public works will come down.
Plaziak, (pictured) who has overseen the project for years, said common environmental issues used to center on asbestos and lead.
“Now PCBs are becoming an issue,” she said as she watched the building come down. The environmental issues are the trickiest because you never know what you will find. And they are costly,” she noted.
There are now laws about PCBs, which have been found in both the current firehouse’s windows and in the public works buildings, both built in the early 1960’s. Typically PCBs are found in the caulk holding the joints of a building.
Plaziak pointed to an underground gas tank near the public works building office and to an oil tank buried behind the fire house . And there are other abandoned tanks at the current fire headquarters. And we have no records of them.”
“With some of these you don’t know until you do it,” she said. “There are unknowns in the ground.”
As the demolition continued, David Christoforo, the project manager for Turner Construction, stood by. He was smiling as the site was cleared.
“I love starting a new project,” he said.
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