By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
MONROE — The Township Council passed an ordinance Monday that outlines the distribution of costs for building a new station in Fire District 2 that will be owned jointly by the township and the district.
The 14,890-square-foot station will sit on a 3-acre parcel near the intersection of Applegarth and Halsey Reed roads. The site is part of a 20-acre lot donated to the township by Stratford Developers LLC. The remaining 17 acres will be used for the township’s new senior center.
Plans call for 9,505 square feet to be used exclusively by the Fire Department and 3,025 square feet to be used exclusively by the township EMS.
The cost of the project is expected to be $5.9 million. The township is set contribute $1.57 million, while the fire district will contribute $4.35 million approved by voters through a referendum last month.
Voters approved a similar referendum in February of 2006 to place the station on Half Acre Road, but the site had to be changed due to the discovery of contaminated concrete at the location, requiring a new vote.
According to Township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton, the township and the fire district will share the deed for the property.
Mr. Hamilton says that the distribution of costs between the township and Fire District 2 was determined by looking at the portion of the building that will be used by each service.
”What the ordinance really does is stipulate how much of the building will be used by EMS, and how much will be used by the fire, and distributes the costs accordingly,” Mr. Hamilton says. “The agreement is still being banged around a little bit by the lawyers, but it basically acknowledges the join ownership of the property.”
The department’s 17 full-time firefighters and volunteers are currently headquartered on Applegarth Road in a station Fire Commissioner Maurice Mahler says is out-of-date.
”The firehouse that we are in now is 60 to 70 years old. We don’t even have space for the firemen to sleep, they are laying down between file cabinets,” Mr. Mahler said. “We are a full 24/7, 365 day-a-year department. We need a state-of-the-art facility.”
According to Mr. Mahler the fire district will sign the agreement at its Nov. 14 meeting. He says that he thinks the facility could be done by next winter.
