After years of planning, a new building for the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department received a resounding endorsement via voice vote from townspeople during a town meeting Thursday night.
The well-attended meeting lasted just five minutes. No comments were made, and no questions were asked about the plan for the new building, which it is estimated will cost $9.3 million dollars after factoring in contingency and soft costs.
Funding will come from a $2.5 million grant from the state, $3,000,000 in private donations, $500,000 in town funds and bond financing of $3,263,000.
Additional funding may become available, however. The town is waiting to hear whether it has secured a $500,000 STEAP grant to apply toward the project. Although a federal grant of $1.25 million was caught up in the Washington budget cuts, the town will reapply next year.
At an informational meeting held earlier, taxpayers learned that the new structure will provide adequate space for training, storage and parking for today’s much-larger fire engines. The current firehouse, built 54 years ago, originally housed three fire trucks, but today seven trucks, measuring up to 33 feet in length, are crowded into it.
The current building has numerous building code violations and does not have a ventilation system to mitigate exposure to toxic fumes such as diesel exhaust.
The firefighters hope to break ground this summer.