'What's another six months?' Latest Bourne fire station site fails environmental review.

BOURNE — The four-decade trek to select a suitable location for a fire station south of the canal, as of late November, was thought to have rounded the final bend.

But not yet. The road, if anything, got longer.

Wayne Sampson, chair of the South Side Fire Station Building Committee, on Nov. 21 told the Select Board the recommended new station site at the old-and-closed firehouse along Barlows Landing Road, Pocasset, proved unsuitable.

Sampson said it was professionally determined the “flood zone goes right through the middle of where the new station was going to be.” He said his search committee, however, was “not starting all over” as much as re-analyzing locations previously reviewed and deemed unsuitable.

Some sites are still available, he said. Two are not.

“It’s time for us to take a step back and look at other properties on our list and consider other recommendations in the best interests of the town; perhaps look at current town properties,” Sampson said.

The site search panel, eying progress at long last, had hoped pending project design would lead to a construction price tag in January and a May debt exclusion request for 20-year financing. Now that critical planning will be put off until the new year.

Price tags for a four-bay station have been discussed by various site search committees at $11 million to $17 million. If the next station project includes a land purchase, the overall total could be eyewatering. But search members have carefully avoided such discussions.

A step back but not a setback

There is collective search panel understanding that the principal obstacle in site searches involves the long stretch of geography between the canal and the Meganset line, notably as that affects the need for rapid response by the fire department. In addition, a large swath of Pocasset and Monument Beach are part of a municipal watershed protection district.

Yet there is one hard truth that emerged over four decades of site searching. There is no perfect Bourne firehouse location south of the canal. But there have always been new ideas.

One panel considered a firehouse built inside the Otis rotary along Route 28. Another thought a station on the easterly edge of the Bourne south traffic circle would be appropriate. Yet another eyed school department playing fields behind the town library off Sandwich Road.

Select Board Chair Mary Jane Mastrangelo on Nov. 21 wondered if two properties on the search list that had environmental problems involving pollutants should be reconsidered in terms of the town mitigating the issues.

How would the Bourne fire station be financed?

A debt exclusion request remains an obvious financing option with a customary two decades of payment. There are others. Funds might be tapped from the town’s capital construction stabilization account.

Select Board member Peter Meier, also a station search committee member, said the quest now is “get the information we need and see what works for the townspeople; notably a suitable practical fire station” that serves the area’s needs.

“We have to keep digging our heels in; get the best information for the townspeople. This (station) is long overdue. Taxpayers should have suitable location. They’ve been waiting 30, 40 and 50 years for this. So, what’s another six months or so.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne's latest southside fire station site won't work. Now what?