Significant Progress Made Since January Ground Breaking At Foxon Fire Station 3

EAST HAVEN, CT—The ground was broken six months ago on the renovation and expansion of Foxon Fire Station 3. The recent updates from East Haven Fire Chief Matthew Marcarelli show the significant progress made to date.

Completed in 1968, this is the first major renovation of the fire station in decades, according to the fire chief.

Marcarelli said earlier this year that the project "represents the first major capital improvement to a public safety building since the high school was constructed, and it’s long overdue."

Phase 1 includes a new 48' x 72' addition that can shelter up to eight vehicles, depending on size, with a center bay tall enough for an apparatus maintenance lift, an expanded outdoor training area, and significantly increased parking.

The entire building will receive a standing-seam metal roof and a decorative cupola facing the Route 80/North High Street intersection.

As he noted in January, the project supported by the East Haven Board of Fire Commissioners, Board of Finance, and the East Haven Town Council "addresses long-standing issues."

Those include the removal of a problematic, leaky flat roof and the expansion of both the parking area and the exterior training area.

"This investment benefits both our career and volunteer firefighters," the chief said, "giving them a safer, more functional facility that reflects the level of service they provide every day."

Marcarelli said that the latest milestones on the expansion project have been block work, siding panels, rough electrical, roof panels (50 percent completed), and overhead doors (almost completed).

"Part of the construction at Station 3 includes a municipal fire hydrant on the station property to allow firefighters to train on-site rather than along a public roadway, which has proven to be dangerous for them in the past," Marcarelli said. "The parking lot will include an outdoor training area, and this hydrant is part of that."

"Today (Monday) the Regional Water Authority began laying the new water main that will service the buildings' fire protection but also a training hydrant that will be on the grounds of the facility so firefighters won’t have to train in a public roadway any longer," he said.

Marcarelli said that the "decorative cupola" will be framed out later this week over the Foxon Volunteer Hall.

And he noted that "last week the East Haven Town Council approved additional funds, which will be for Phase II, which is the complete interior renovation and abatement," he said. "That will dovetail into the existing work."

The work is being built by Munger Construction and managed by Bluescope Construction through the Sourcewell purchasing cooperative, of which the town is a member.