Town Finds Parcel For New Fire Station

ORLEANS – After years of searching for and discussing a site for a new fire station in town, officials may have found the land needed to build a new facility.

 Voters at the upcoming special town meeting on Nov. 17 will be asked to support spending $1.35 million in stabilization funds to purchase the property at 56 Eldredge Park Way. The property is currently home to Advanced Family Dental of Cape Cod.

 After an executive session Oct. 15, the select board announced that it had come to an agreement on terms for a purchase and sale agreement on the property, which abuts the front of the existing fire station. In a letter prepared for the select board for the executive session, Michael Solitro, the town’s special projects coordinator, said that it is expected that both parties will close on the sale “on or before Jan. 31, 2026, unless otherwise agreed.”

 By using stabilization funds there would be no tax impact related to the purchase, if authorized by voters.

 “Kim, your entire team has done an awesome job pulling this together,” Select Board Chair Kevin Galligan told Town Manager Kim Newman when the board returned to public session Oct. 15.

 The dentist office has long been discussed as a workable site for a new station, given its location fronting Eldredge Park Way and its proximity to the existing fire facility. Galligan said the parcel allows for a new station with enhanced visibility and easier access for fire personnel. The property also would allow the fire department to continue operating out of the current station during construction, which Solitro in his letter said saves the town the roughly $13.5 million it would cost to find a temporary location.

 “Really I think a lot of credit [goes to] Kim and the people in her office and the select board for continuing to work this challenge,” Orleans Fire Chief Geof Deering said. “As you know, we’ve been working on this for a long time. We know that this location, this area, is really good from a response time standpoint.”

 The existing fire station opened its doors in 1987 but no longer meets the needs of a modern fire rescue building. The current building, which Deering said was designed for two or three people to be on duty, has long become overcrowded. Structural issues in the form of roof leaks have been a recurring problem, he said, as have air quality, HVAC and rodent issues. 

 But the road toward siting a new fire station has been lengthy and difficult. A new fire rescue station feasibility study committee was dissolved in late 2022, after three proposed locations on Main Street, Eldredge Park Way and Bay Ridge Lane were determined to be unsuitable for a new facility. Efforts to site a new station on land under the jurisdiction of the Nauset Public Schools in the area of Nauset Regional Middle School also failed to make headway.

 Most recently, town officials zeroed in on land fronting Eldredge Park Way near Orleans Elementary School. The Galante Architecture Studio of Cambridge prepared very preliminary conceptual renderings of how a new station might fit in that area earlier this year, but concerns were raised about building a station so close to the elementary school.

 The town sent letters to abutters of the school and the existing fire station seeking their interest in potentially selling or leasing their land for a new station. Newman last week said only Gregory Monfette, who owns the dentist office at 56 Eldredge Park Way, responded with interest.

 “We met with half a dozen abutters, and we talked to them about different options,” she said. “Only one of them was interested in selling.”

 Newman said that upon becoming town manager in 2023, she “re-examined some of the narratives” around the various site options that had been discussed, including building on regional school property. She said a project with multiple stakeholders would prolong the planning process, which in turn would increase the overall cost of the project by an estimated $1 million for every six months of delay.

 But the purchase would give the town clean ownership of the land at 56 Eldredge Park Way, providing access not only to that .82 acre lot but also the land behind it on which the existing station currently sits.

 “We’re going to have to work through some of those challenges of how to intertwine construction with fire department operations,” Deering said. “But again, this is one of the best case scenarios we can have. When you combine what we’re hopefully going to get through the purchase of that property with land that the town already owns, I think there’s a lot of wins here.”

 In May, voters at the annual town meeting authorized $4.5 million for a full design of a new fire station. Newman said the hope is that a design will be prepared in time for another article to go before voters in May 2026 seeking construction funding. The cost of construction is currently estimated to be between $40 million and $45 million, she said.

 Newman said that the town’s fire rescue building committee could begin working with Galante on a station design by December. If construction funding is approved, ground could be broken on the new station in May 2027, with construction estimated to take 18 months.

 Advanced Family Dentistry, meanwhile, will continue operating out of the property until the summer of 2027. Galligan read a statement from Monfette at the Oct. 15 meeting saying that he will remain in business while “actively seeking a new location locally to relocate” his practice. 

 “We want to assure everyone that this real estate transaction will not alter your care or require you to find a new office,” Monfette said in the statement.

 Newman said the town is continuing to explore other possible land purchases or leases to expand the workable footprint for a new station. That includes a neighboring property to Advanced Family Dentistry.

 “Nothing is definite, but we are still very interested in trying to make something happen over here. We just haven’t been able to at this point,” she said.

 Newman said she’s hopeful that the potential land purchase will ease concerns from those in the community about how and where to site the new station. Emily Miller, a member of the fire rescue building committee, was one such critic of plans to build near the elementary school. But speaking as a resident, she said in an email last week that the potential purchase of 56 Eldredge is a “very promising development” in planning for the station.

 “I’m glad the town heard residents’ concerns about the site, and acted,” she said. “Kudos to the town, and to all those who expressed their concerns.”