Project Information and Background
The Town of Hanover is located in the Northern section of Plymouth County along Route 3, a busy State Highway that connects Boston to Cape Cod. State Routes 53, 128, and 139 also transect the Town. The North River provides much of Hanover’s Southern border where shipbuilding and rubber manufacturing provided jobs for the residents of the Town’s six villages. At the turn of the 20th century, each village established volunteer fire companies and purchased hose wagons to protect the Town from fire. Stations were constructed that could house motorized apparatus and that model served the Town well through the 1970s. During this time Hanover’s population grew from a few thousand to more than 10,000 people and the department’s emergency call volume eclipsed 1,000. In 1987, a new fire headquarters was constructed in the center of town and a transition began that shifted the department from a combined force that relied heavily on the response of on-call firefighters supported by a small group of career firefighters, to a force that now relies on full-time career firefighters supplemented by a smaller group of on-call firefighters.
Today, the Hanover Fire Department serves approximately 15,000 residents and responds to just over 3,300 emergency calls per year. The North Hanover section comprises approximately one-third of the Town’s 15.7 square miles and is in the midst of a phase of rapid commercial and residential development. Hanover Crossing is a new mixed-use development that will include shopping, dining, entertainment, and housing that will increase the demand for emergency services in North Hanover.
The Town identified the need to construct a new fire substation in North Hanover in 1993. In 2005, the project started to move forward. A downturn in the economy and the pressing need for a new high school and additions to three other schools placed the fire station project on hold. In 2014, the Town refocused on the need for the fire facility and begins taking the steps necessary to acquire the Webster Street parcel.
- 1993 - The Town pays an outside firm to conduct a comprehensive study of the Fire Department facilities that recommends the Construction of a new fire substation in North Hanover.
- 2005 - The Annual Town Meeting authorized the creation of a Fire Station Study Committee and they returned a recommendation to build a new station to serve the North Hanover area.
- 2008 - The Town’s updated Master Plan endorsed the construction of a new station in North Hanover.
- 2009 - The Town unsuccessfully applied for a $2.3 million dollar federal grant, thru the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to construct a station. The project was denied as the project was not deemed “shovel ready.”
- 2010 - An outside firm conducts a study of town facilities and recommended the construction of a new fire department facility.
- 2014 - The Annual Town Meeting appropriated $10,000 to conduct a needs assessment to determine the size and estimated cost of a facility and to select a site for it.
- 2014 - The Town Manager selects the Webster Street parcel and instructs the Director of Finance/Acting Treasurer/Collector to proceed with foreclosure.
- 2015 - $44,000 was appropriated to develop an architectural design and at that time the estimated cost of construction was $6.88 million dollars. The Town actively pursues the acquisition of the land by tax title and the Town Manager assembles a fire station working group to update the needs assessment and re-evaluate past studies.
- 2019 - CDR Maguire is contracted to provide an updated project cost which comes back at $9 million dollars.
- 2020 - A Fire Station Planning Committee is created by the Board of Selectmen
- “To evaluate options for the Hanover Fire Department's ’need for space, geographically consistent response times, operational efficiency, and cost containment (debt and operational), as they relate to the concept of a new fire department sub-station. The study committee is expected to provide objective analysis (pros and cons, and other considerations) on reasonably probable options; the study committee does not have the burden of making a recommendation.” The most recent cost estimate to construct a substation on the site has risen to $10,476,488.88.
- The conclusion of the report submitted by the Committee to the Board of Selectmen states: “The Town of Hanover has needed the Project for decades and the projected cost to build the Project climb each year that this demonstrated need goes unaddressed. As such, it is critical that the Board of Selectmen, Chief Blanchard, and the Finance Committee find a workable solution that will appropriate the funding necessary to implement a plan to build a new substation in North Hanover. After evaluating the Town of Hanover’s need for cost containment as the Town of Hanover decides whether, when and how to build the Project, this Committee has determined that the pros of moving forward with the Project outweigh the cons associated with further delay.”
The existing two-bay substation was constructed in 1969 and was not designed large enough to house modern fire apparatus and ambulances. The parcel of land that the structure is built upon is only 0.3 acres, too small to build a substation of sufficient size to serve the area now or into the future. The building is currently used for storage only, leaving the North Hanover residents with excessive response times as firefighters and paramedics must travel from Hanover Fire Headquarters, located to the South of the geographic center of the Town.
Time is of the essence during an emergency. The sooner an airway is cleared or a patient’s normal heart rhythm is restored by defibrillation, the greater the chances are for a patient to fully recover. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the Insurance Services Organization (ISO), and the American Heart Association (AHA) all agree that emergency responders must be able to arrive on scene within six minutes to have the greatest impact. Those six minutes are measured from the time the emergency is identified until first responders arrive on location. This includes time to process the call, responders to “turn out” or get into the apparatus, and the drive time to reach the emergency.
The location of a fire station is critical to a fire department’s ability to reach the scene within six minutes. Unlike police stations that can be located almost anywhere as they utilize roving patrols within assigned coverage areas, a fire station is a base from which Hanover firefighters and paramedics respond. They must be strategically located to allow responders to reach the greatest number of residents and businesses within six minutes.
The Webster Street property has long been recognized to be a possible location for a North Hanover fire substation. It is a 3.5-acre undeveloped parcel that is perfectly situated to provide service to the North Hanover area. Webster Street is also State Route 123 which runs east and west thru the middle of North Hanover. The parcel’s location on Webster Street is 500 feet to the West of the intersection with Main Street. Main Street is the major road that runs North and South from the center of Hanover through North Hanover into the Town of Norwell. The Webster Street parcel is the only buildable, undeveloped parcel location in North Hanover.