TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—A public presentation on a proposed $6 million overhaul of the firehouse is set for July 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 350 Hudson Ave., the next regular council meeting.
Can’t attend? Tune in live on FIOS Channel 24 or Optimum Channel 77.
Town notices of the presentation were mailed to residents within 200 feet of the firehouse, some of whom have expressed concerns over impacts of the estimated 44-foot-tall structure going up.
There is growing pressure for the presentation to pull costs into focus. Independent Councilman Michael Ullman said the current figure of $6,081,993 for a combined firehouse and ambulance headquarters would fund a mere shell.
He and others also question why there are almost no common amenities for the two services on the drawing board, and whether savings could be found in having more.
Architect Robbie Conley, a veteran firefighter who designed Montvale’s new firehouse, last year presented options to the governing body for a combined fire station and ambulance corps headquarters just off the current firehouse footprint, at 656 Washington Ave.
He found significant issues to do with operations for firefighting, administration, and livability at the firehouse and came up with a plan he said would serve the town well for the next 50–75 years.
The “total” project cost on designs Pascack Press has seen in advance of the July 15 presentation come to $6,081,993.
That buys a two-story, 20,338-square-foot structure, of which 13,218 square feet are for the fire department and 5,712 are for the ambulance corps.
The cost includes a 10% contingency but does not include environmental mediation, if needed, or furnishings.
Professional fees are given as $415,000. Legal and reproduction costs are listed at nearly $26,000.
Conley said site design is to be completed by the town’s civil engineer and that such coordination has commenced.
Conley has 35 years experience in fire service, 30 years experience in architecture, 10 years as chief of the Woodbury Heights Fire Department, three years as a councilman, and four years as mayor of Woodbury Heights.
The plans are marked confidential, though Borough Attorney Kenneth Poller explained in an email to Ullman, who asked why that’s so, “There is nothing deeply confidential about this presentation. I think the vendor preferred to be able to present the whole picture with verbal as well as written.”
At the June 17 meeting of the mayor and council, Cleveland Avenue resident William R. Ferara asked members why the project includes the ambulance corps, saying he wasn’t aware anyone had been asking for the move.
He also characterized the project as a $6 million investment, citing the given estimate, drawing a general correction from Ullman.
“It’s a mistake to say the new emergency services building is going to cost $6 million. I think the project is going to be above that. That’s the cost of building a shell there. It doesn’t include the cost of the furniture and equipment that would need to go because that was pulled out in the last presentation,” Ullman said.
He added his view that “We have underestimated the cost of the finished product.”
At that, Council President Michael DeSena noted that Conley “is a licensed architect and I don’t believe he would do anything unethical to bring the numbers down. He has a license from the state of New Jersey and … that is his cost opinion.”
He added, “We’re throwing stuff at the architect with him not being here. We should just think about things, because he’s put his license seal on it and said ‘This is my opinion.’”
He further called the estimate an educated guess.
Ullman pressed on, saying, “The number that we started with was $5.9 million and the architect magically removed $72,000 in furniture and magically found a $62,000 savings because he didn’t have to make copies of the plan.”
He added, “I do think that there are issues with the numbers and I look forward to him presenting. He pulled $134,000 out of the plan and we’re still at $6 million. I do think the number’s going to change.”
On Aug. 6, 2018 Conley estimated $4 million for a minimal update to the firehouse and approximately $6 million for a joint firehouse/EMS facility sited on a new footprint east of the existing building.
Two days later, Aug. 8, the Township of Washington Volunteer Ambulance Corps ratified a vote to leave its home at 354 Hudson Ave. and pitch in with the WTFD for a state-of-the-art emergency center.
“It’s a good story, a positive move forward for the corps. It’ll be a good future for us,” WTVAC Capt. Rich Miras told Pascack Press on Aug. 9.
The established WTVAC headquarters and its land would remain a township holding.
Miras said members agreed roughly 21–12 to join the fire department in planning.
“It’ll be a bigger facility, more modern, more room for personnel. And it’ll be more visible and help us recruit new members, young members” he said. “Right now we’re pretty well tucked away. Some people don’t even know we exist.”
He said some members who voted no argued their base has served them well since the corps set up shop in March 1957.
Others reportedly were concerned about the difficulty of getting to the firehouse, given the troublesome intersection of Washington Avenue and Pascack Road.
That’s a point Ferara raised as well at the June 17 council meeting.
The intersection is set to be improved after plans languished for more than a decade, according to DeSena, who told Pascack Press last summer that the intersection, a campaign focus in the 2017 general election, would be improved in 2019.
“It’s not going to be an issue after that,” he said.
He said he found Conley’s initial presentation to be “terrific,” and predicted the council would back one of the concepts given.
“We absolutely need a major update, an overhaul, at the firehouse. One of those concepts has to be implemented,” DeSena said.
Mayor Peter Calamari noted of last August’s initial presentation, “This is just a possibility for a design that would work so that we could put a dollar amount to it. It’s a conceptual design, not necessarily a design you would take.”
