Aberdeen Fire Station Expansion Completed

ABERDEEN – After more than a month of delays, the expansion of the Aberdeen fire station is complete and move-in is expected within the next couple of weeks.

“We just got the CO (certificate of occupancy),” Aberdeen Town Manager Bill Zell said. “It’s virtually done.”

The original completion date for the project was Dec. 28, but Zell said numerous “little things” delayed the project into the new year.

“Sometimes, with all the loose ends, you wonder if it is ever going to come together, but this is coming together nicely,” he said.

Fire Chief Phillip Richardson is still going over a final punch list for the project with the contractor, Zell said.

Richardson said he expects his department will be able to occupy the new building within the next two weeks.

“Our guys have been very patient throughout the process, and I know they are excited to get in there,” Richardson said.

The expansion adds nearly 5,000 square feet to the current building at a cost of $1.4 million. The extra space will increase the overall size of the building to between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet.

The expansion was funded mostly through stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The renovation includes five additional living quarters, 600 square feet of storage space, a room for an emergency operations center, offices, a training center and a conference room.

The emergency operations center is named in honor of former fire chief Thomas F. Brock.

In the coming days, the interior of the building will be furnished and outfitted with the necessary equipment, such as computers, phones and fitness equipment, to serve the town’s 15 full-time firefighters, one administrative assistant and 40 volunteer firefighters.

One of the last remnants of the project is the temporary trailer that has housed the department for about a year during construction. Zell said the trailer likely will be removed by the end of next week.

“I’m going to miss that trailer,” Richardson said of the building his department has worked out of since Valentine’s Day 2010. “What is really sad is that the trailer is bigger than what we had originally. So we upgraded once, and now we get to upgrade again.”

Outside the building, the parking lot needs to be completed, as does the landscaping.

Work on the project began in February 2010, when demolition crews knocked down the side of the existing fire station that faces Peach Street.

Since then, firefighters have lived in temporary quarters in a trailer next to the department’s equipment bays.

The contractor on the expansion is Progressive Contracting Co., of Sanford, and the architect is John Heckethorn.

The total amount of the project is $1,423,300. The USDA funds will cover $1,144,900, with a grant covering $203,400 and the town paying the other $75,000. The federal funds come from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Zell and Richardson said the town will hold a public open house for the facility at a later date, sometime after March 1.

“I want to make sure all the punch list items get taken care of and everything is just right before we show it off to the public,” Richardson said.

PRIMARY AGENCY: Aberdeen Fire Department