Bourne selects architect for new fire station. What's next for project

Paul Gately
·2 min read

BUZZARDS BAY – The South Side Fire Station Building Committee voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon  to recommend Saccoccio & Associates Architects as the designer for the new firehouse south of the Bourne Bridge.

Selectmen ratified that decision Tuesday night, again on a unanimous vote. Members also directed Town Administrator Marlene McCollem to negotiate a contract with Saccoccio.

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Select Board member Mary Jane Mastrangelo said she was impressed with the firm after checking projects listed on its website.

Bourne selectmen recently voted unanimously to hire Saccoccio & Associates Architects as the designer for the new firehouse south of the Bourne Bridge.
Bourne selectmen recently voted unanimously to hire Saccoccio & Associates Architects as the designer for the new firehouse south of the Bourne Bridge.

Saccoccio, based in Milton and Cranston, R.I., comes to Bourne with firehouse design experience including a new three-bay station in North Plymouth. For that project the firm worked with Bourne Owners Project Manager Richard Pomroy of Pomroy Associates and McCollem, the former assistant Plymouth town manager.

Building committee members registered “comfort levels” with the relationship between Saccoccio and Pomroy and McCollem. But McCollem quickly issued a cautionary note.

Still searching for site for new Bourne station

"It's important to me that this is clear that if you do choose to go with Saccoccio, they're working for the Town of Bourne they're not working for Rick and Marlene and not transferring a different community's needs on to you," she said. “Bourne is a different context than Plymouth; there are different needs."

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The building committee is also tasked with finding a location for the new station. Of the four finalist locations, the two in Pocasset and Monument Beach have been ruled out. The two remaining sites are the Adventure Isle tract and neighboring former golf-driving range, both along Route 28 (MacArthur Boulevard) in Monument Beach.

“There won’t be a lot of design work until the site is chosen,” McCollem said.

The other applicant was the Galante Architectural Studio Inc. (TGAS) of Cambridge.

Galante, prior to the Tuesday interview visited the four potential station sites and mapped the tracts. Saccoccio has not visited the sites. The building committee had not listed such visits in its pre-interview requests for information.

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“I think either way you’ll have a very good architect,” McCollem told the building committee. “I think both firms are very professional.”

A south side station has become a governmental quest, spanning more than two decades, numerous site selection efforts, various building committees, many boards of selectmen, at least six fire chiefs and three town administrators.

A new station would be responsible for emergency responses to Bourne schools, the Cape Cod Residences at Pocasset, the Gallo Ice Arena at Sandwich Road and the Barnstable County Correctional Facility on Otis ANG Base among other areas.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Architect chosen to design Bourne's new fire station