OLD LYME—The following is a statement from Old Lyme Fire Chief Michael McCarthy and the Old Lyme Fire Department (OLFD) regarding tonight’s presentation and potential vote at Old Lyme’s Annual Town Business Meeting on the expansion of the Boughton Rd. Emergency Operations Center. We have published the statement in its entirety.
This Monday, January 27th, at the town hall 7:30pm is an opportunity to vote on the expansion of the Old Lyme Emergency Management space at our Boughton Road firehouse. The OLFD asks for your support of this project, we have worked closely with the committee, and this has been a need for a long time. Yes, it is a large ticket item, however with several years in a row of garnering grant funding, the cost to the town has been kept low given the scope and total cost. It is difficult to foresee the rise of construction costs. If this does not pass, $708,000 of hard-earned grant money will essentially be forfeited.
Total cost: $1,522,170
Grant funding: $912,950
Remaining town cost: $609,220
Potential grant loss if unapproved: $708,450
Grant-writing is time-consuming and regulated, it takes time and effort to request what has been requested. We are thankful this much funding actually received approval. The timing of the request to the town comes after years of effort to keep cost as low as possible.
The current footprint is about 16’x24′ divided into two rooms, but has an even smaller, workable amount of space given storage cabinets, a kitchenette, and a lot of necessary IT equipment. It is difficult to conduct emergency operations in a space about the size of a master bathroom.
Did you know that OLFD is comprised entirely of volunteers? Did you know that when our town is expecting a significant event like a hurricane, our members leave their families for the entire duration of the storm to hunker down in-station so we can continue to provide emergency support? We take over Lyme Street and Cross Lane firehouse meeting rooms with cots, along with Old Lyme EMS, while the EOC powers up here at Boughton Road.
Although this is our firehouse, it is a shared space. This necessary expansion will allow all three departments to utilize a significantly updated and more spacious facility, and will also support the entire Town of Old Lyme Town Hall as essentially a full backup facility if necessary. The EOC needs a proper facilty during major emergency events like huricanes, but just as important, they need it for year-round necessary, and required training, meetings, and mandated events. Plus, the updated space would enable all three departments training availability year-round.
We hope the townspeople can appreciate this multipurpose effort.