The Town proposes to build a new Public Safety Facility to house the Police Department, Fire Headquarters, Ambulances, and combined 911 Dispatch Center. It will be located off of Old Quarry Road on the Town-owned old Schlumberger property.

Both the Police and Fire headquarters have served us well for more than 100 years but are well beyond their useful lives and do not allow for sufficient renovation to meet the departments’ current needs. Mindful of our history and of taxpayer dollars, this building is designed to serve us now as well as for decades in the future. Building a combined Public Service facility will permit us to take advantage of the cost savings which come with designing and building a single building instead of two as well as the synergies which follow from having all of our First Responders in the same facility. The central location of the new site will also provide for safer and more efficient responses by our First Responders.

The Town will bond the expense over 20 or 25 years.

Through numerous revisions and modifications to the plans, the Town has already reduced the cost of construction by $9,000,000. Federal, State and Private grants will be applied for to offset the cost (one application is already pending), and there may be some additional cost recovery depending upon the disposition of the existing Police and Fire buildings.

Come see them and you will understand. The buildings are each over 100 years old and look it. There is no room to expand either the Fire Station on Catoonah Street or the Police Station on East Ridge Road.

The Town is exploring future options for the existing Fire and Police headquarters buildings, including their sale or use for other Town space needs.Mindful of the historic and aesthetic value of the existing buildings and the Catoonah Street and East Ridge Road streetscapes however, no disposition of these two properties has yet been determined.

A large number of potential sites were considered and eventually narrowed down to seven properties. Please see Appendix A for additional details.

The Old Quarry Road site is more centrally located and preferable for response times, it is large enough, the Town already owns the property so there is no acquisition cost and it will not result in a loss from the Tax Rolls. Please see Appendix A for additional details.

Particularly for the Fire Department and ambulances, vehicles will not have to be shuffled in and out of the current Fire Department headquarters and will not have to negotiate the increasingly congested downtown traffic.The more central location will improve response times to much of the Town, especially the growing north side.Vacating the Fire Station will also free up several much-needed parking spaces downtown.

We anticipate that there will be a benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods. Fire and Ambulance vehicles generally respond to 7-8 calls per day on average. A substantial percentage of those calls are to the Urgent Care location on South Street, Ridgefield Crossing on Old Quarry Road, or to Laurel Ridge on Danbury Road. Response times would improve due to the nearer proximity of the Public Safety building.

Police vehicles are constantly circulating around Town and will continue to travel on those roads. Fire and Ambulance vehicles generally respond to 7-8 calls per day on average. A substantial percentage of those calls are to the Urgent Care location on South Street, Ridgefield Crossing on Old Quarry Road, or to Laurel Ridge on Danbury Road. We do not anticipate that there will be a significant impact on traffic to those locations or travel on those roads and expect that a Traffic Study to be submitted as part of the Planning and Zoning process will confirm that.

By all means. We will be scheduling multiple Open Houses at each of the facilities and welcome folks to schedule individual or group tours at other times. If you can’t make it over personally, we’ll soon have a link to a virtual tour about the Public Safety Building on the Town website. www.ridgefieldct.gov