FAQ - Why all this space? (updated 4/1/21)

Questions:

Can the space be reduced with fewer offices, less locker space, less bunk space, etc.?  Can the offices be smaller? 

The Police and Fire Departments have reviewed the design to ensure the building meets the minimum requirements of both departments and the requirements of the National Fire Protection Association and related Police standards. In many cases, the Chiefs opted for a larger shared workspace over multiple individual offices.

As part of the EOC we must provide sleeping quarters. The bunk rooms, in addition to plenty of cots, would meet that requirement. Fire/EMS personnel would also use the bunk rooms for storm stand-bys (big storm coming so reduce response time by having people in each station). If we move to 24/7 manned coverage, sleeping quarters would also be needed. Note that we have had four storm-related “sleepovers” so far this winter and we had two or three last winter. During the ice storm, we had seven overnights.

Why do we need two sergeant’s offices (police)?

We have two Sergeant offices at the Police Department now and it works well (though the space is tight).  The Chief believes that these officers, being in supervisory positions, need their own separate spaces.

Why is the Shared Patrol/Reports Space so large?

The patrol space holds 3 to 5 officers and their workstations. It is located in the restricted area of the station because reports can be of a sensitive nature (such as sexual assaults or juvenile issues). Anytime a major incident happens, this will be needed. If two officers stay past their shift to complete arrest reports and two more officers come on duty, we will need that space.  It’s there if/when it is needed.  We currently have 7 workstations and the new Public Safety Building (PSB) would give us 10 if you put 5 workstations in the patrol/report writing area.  It’s not much of an increase if we are planning for the future. 

Why can’t the Small Shared Conference room be used for Board and Committee meetings?

This room functions as the second Police Department Interview Room. It is sometimes referred to as a “soft” interview room. It is important to have a second interview room located away from the Booking Center for distance between a detainee and a victim or witness. The room will be outfitted with the video and audio recording equipment necessary for an interview room. When not in use by the police as a an interview room, it can be used for other police/fire business.

Why do we need a fitness room and why such a large one?

By law, firefighters and police officers must maintain a required level of fitness and pass a State-mandated fitness test to join and remain on the department.  Police Officers and Firefighters must have a regular fitness program. The nature of their emergency response work causes them to go from an at rest position to aggressive response. This is the leading cause of heart attacks in unfit public safety personnel. Sterling, Holden, Paxton, and Rutland all have fitness areas for their public safety personnel. Hubbardston’s PD is working out of an old facility with no holding cells or fitness area. Princeton would be at a severe disadvantage in hiring and retaining firefighters, EMTs, and police officers if it did not provide a fitness facility. The proposed fitness room, outfitted with grant funded and donated equipment, is sized to best meet this need. As we look at what the State has mandated for public safety buildings in the past, we believe this is an area where more, not less, will be asked of departments.

We should note that police officers are not allowed to use the fitness room during their shifts but are encouraged to use it at other times. Our per diem EMS staff is encouraged to get a workout in while on call with the understanding they must immediately stop if there is a call. This is one of the “perks” of taking a per diem shift.

The in-house fitness facility is heavily used by both departments. An on-site facility has the added benefit of attracting on-call personnel to the station. When an emergency call is requested, personnel are already at the station enabling a quicker response. The existing fitness room was built under a FEMA Emergency Responders Grant.  The $40,000 in commercial gym equipment was secured via a state grant and personal donations by fire and police department personnel.  In a recent ad seeking EMTs, Medics, and firefighters, the availability of fitness equipment was used as an enticement.

What is an EOC and why do we need such a large one?

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is a central facility, planned and prepared for in advance, used by government officials for coordinating the response and recovery efforts needed during any type of disaster or critical incident. The facility must have the physical resources required to support the government officials as they gather information and direct operations. To better understand the need for the EOC, see Public Safety’s letter to residents on EOCs. Our EOC is designed to hold up to 18 people per EOC best practices.

Princeton has secured over $500,000 in public safety grants since 2009.  We are not eligible for grants from FEMA, MEMA, or CMRPC if we do not have an operational EOC that meets NFPA and NIOSH standards.  These are our only sources of grants so giving up the EOC is a huge loss for future funding.  If we were ever audited by FEMA or MEMA, the Town might be asked to return all funds predicated on an adequate EOC.

Our EOC is designed to also be used for Training and for Board and Committee meetings when not needed as an EOC. In these situations, the building code dictates that a maximum of 60 people can use the room. The fire department has weekly training sessions on Tuesday evenings which about 40 people attend. Once a month, this is expanded to include EMTs and the police attend. The Chiefs believe a 60-person occupancy is a good size for our training needs.

The police department currently has no space for their own training. This room will allow them to have space for quite a bit of their mandatory training. In addition, the police department would be able to host training, which would cut down on training costs since the hosting agency typically gets some seats for free. 

What is a gear/decontamination room and why is there space allocated for expansion of this space?

It is a segregated space for cleaning and decontaminating gear when returning from a fire. Fire fighters are frequently exposed to a host of hazardous chemical agents when fighting fires. First responders also run the risk of fentanyl exposure. Standard guidelines cite a number of recommendations for limiting exposure – one of which is a segregated space for cleaning and decontamination.  This is an area in which regulation seems to be increasing. One concern is that we may be required to have separate decontamination facilities for biologics and chemicals. Another concern is that we may need to move several people through decontamination very quickly. Since this is expensive space to build and it would be hard to retrofit other parts of the station later, we provided expansion space with all necessary utility connections.

Why do we need 2 holding cells? Who can be in them? What if we have more detainees than cells? Why are they so expensive?

We need a safe and secure place to hold our prisoners. Not only do we need to ensure the safety of the prisoners but also of our employees. We are only allowed to hold one adult per cell and juveniles CANNOT be held in cells.  A person arrested on a domestic must be held for a six-hour hold.  A prisoner would be held until they are bailed or until they can be transported to court, once it’s open.  There have been times when we made more than one arrest.

If we had a third prisoner, we would have to reach out to area departments to hold them.  This may include sending one of our officers to that department to watch the prisoner, requiring us to call in another officer to cover their shift.

Arrests have ranged between 63 and 3 (during COVID) per year. In-custody arrests have gone down due to the lack of holding facilities and the increase in unruly arrestees. Every arrestee will end up in a cell. How long is dependent on whether or not they are bailed and when they get bailed. Officers have personally paid the bail fee to release prisoners so we would not have to hold them at the PD and then hoped to retrieve the bail fee at arraignment the following day.

The Department of Public Health dictates many aspects of holding cells: materials, fixtures, audio/visual equipment, etc. It also says that we can only put one person in a cell. It also dictates many aspects of the entire booking area.

How long would the Police hold someone in a holding cell?

The average amount of time we hold a prisoner is four hours. If the courts are closed and it is a long-weekend, we might need to hold a prisoner for up to three days while we wait for the courts to open. Domestic arrests have a minimum six hour hold and restraining order violations can not be bailed and are held until court is in session.

How would staffing work? What additional staff would be required to monitor the detainee?

When possible (and when they are operational) we would transport male prisoners to the Sheriff’s Department in West Boylston. However, they do not hold women and kids. If that weren’t an option, one officer would be assigned for prisoner watch. There would also be an officer on patrol, taking calls. So, an additional officer would be required to watch a prisoner. One option that might save us some money would be to use a Matron to watch a prisoner. The going rate for a Matron is $25.00 per hour, with a four hour minimum.

Could other Towns or the County send a detainee to our holding cells? If so, how would the cost be handled?

There would have to be policies and procedures in place for this. It would be up to the town to determine if this was plausible. Other towns who allow other jurisdictions to lock up at their facilities require personnel from the arresting department and sometimes they charge a fee for holding the prisoner. 

Why do we need a second bay in the Sally Port?

We need the ability to store a vehicle as evidence so that we maintain the chain of custody. There are drug arrests where completing a search warrant would allow a more thorough search of the vehicle, but is not done now because of chain of custody.  Currently the officers do the best they can on the side of the road. Chief Powers believes this is an important tool in their fight against the continued trafficking of drugs through the Town of Princeton. It will allow them to process a vehicle for DNA or latent print evidence which is important at trial.

Where do firefighters keep their gear?

The only personnel that are allowed to keep their gear in their vehicles at this time are officers.  We must get apparatus to the scene, so everyone else keeps their turnout gear at the station. There is a high risk from a contamination standpoint when personnel keep their gear in personal vehicles. The officers that keep their gear in their vehicles have special gear totes to keep separation. It may become mandatory in the very near future for all turnout gear to be stored in a gear storage room so the room has been sized accordingly.  

Why are the apparatus bays so large?

The designs have left  4’ 0” of clearance at all locations around each truck. This is compliant with the Building Code and a typical amount of clearance used in fire stations for line-of sight for safety. Bay 1 has almost 10’ 0” of clearance between ambulance 1 and the tanker at the center which would be the busiest circulation point during a call with staff responding from the building.

Why do we need a third apparatus bay?

This extra bay will allow us to keep all of our vehicles and equipment in secure, covered, heated space. Today, we drain the water out of our two forestry trucks (engine 3 and engine 4) and put them in storage before freezing temperatures will cause damage. During dry winters or late fall/early winter, before we have too much snow, the risk of forest or brush fires remains and we are significantly less prepared to fight them.

Sensitive equipment in Car 25, which we use for personnel transport and also command functions, will no longer be at risk from high summer temperatures.

Our vehicles also suffer weather/sunlight related damage that is costly and could be disruptive. We replace hoses and tires more frequently on our vehicles that need to be stored outside. We also experience electrical damage from rodents and heat damage to expensive communication gear. Theft from the vehicles, some of which can’t be secured, is also a problem. 

It's important to be prepared for needs that might arise during the life of the new building. For example, we might determine we need another Class 1 Ambulance to adequately respond to medical emergencies.

Response time is critical with fire fighting and medical emergencies. We need to make sure that our vehicles are ready to roll when we need them. We also need to make sure that they are close to where the first responders will be. The fire fighters and EMTs will rush to the station, don their gear, jump into the vehicles, and go. The trucks can’t be stored in some out of the way, less central space. In addition, Ladder 1, has air brakes that are currently filled by revving the engine for about 5 minutes before it is safe to move the truck. In the new station, each vehicle will be served by 3 drops from overhead: power, exhaust evacuation, and air. This will improve Ladder 1’s response time.

What would we save by going with just 2 apparatus bays?

Deleting a bay could save approximately $600,000 to $650,000 on the project. Applying sq. ft. costs to pieces of a building for additions or deletions is not the same as using the numbers for the total square footage. The overall number factors in the contractors’ insurances, bonds, travel, overhead, profit, temp heating, dumpsters, site superintendent, office manager and other non-direct material cost. AM Fogarty commonly advises Caolo & Bieniek to use ½ the square foot cost when deleting space. 

For Princeton, deleting one bay would also reduce site cost in that a retaining wall along the west property line would not be needed. The retaining wall plus the square footage in the building is in the $600,000 range. One bay is approximately 1,250 q. ft.