City manager, fire chief in support of potential new fire station
By Adam Swift
The city manager and the fire chief look to be on board with further exploration of building a new fire station somewhere along the Chelsea waterfront.
Earlier this month, District 6 Councilor Giovanni Recupero introduced a motion asking City Manager Fidel Maltez to explore the feasibility of the city building a small fire station to handle growth and development in that portion of the city.
“The Fire Chief and I believe that there will be a great benefit from expanding the capacity of our Fire Department,” said Maltez. “Specifically, the Fire Chief would like (to) pursue the possibility of adding an engine, called Engine 4. This engine may be housed in a smaller fire station, as opposed to a larger fire building like our Central Fire Station.”
Maltez said Fire Chief John Quatieri has explored the possibility of pre-fabricated buildings that may expedite construction and lower costs.
“We are incredibly excited by the news that the New England Revolution stadium is getting closer to reality,” said Maltez. “The Fire Chief and I believe this historic project may be a good opportunity to achieve a new, smaller, auxiliary fire station that can house our Engine 4. Over the next few months, our team will be getting ready for this conversation, including preparing costs, potential location and staffing requirements.”
Maltez said the city will be ready with sufficient data to maximize the benefit to residents when the time comes to potentially build a new fire station.
“We do need a small, auxiliary fire station on that side because there is none,” said Recupero. “That waterfront is growing by leaps and bounds so I believe that is a good thing and I hope we get it done soon.”
Councilor-at-Large Roberto Jimenez-Rivera said he agreed that the potential building of the new soccer stadium presents a good opportunity to build a new fire station in Chelsea, but he asked what the mitigation process would be for the city to benefit from the construction of a new stadium.
Maltez said the city plans to make the argument that the stadium would impact services in Chelsea, making it eligible for mitigation measures. He said with a new fire station, Chelsea would also be able to support emergency response to the stadium area.
“We feel that it would not only be a mitigation, it would be an addition, a benefit to the stadium itself,” said Maltez.