First priced at $25 million, then $21 million, the proposed new Hyannis fire station has been set at a new pricetag of $18 million, the Barnstable Patriot reports.
Although community opposition drove down the price, the fire station building committee warns this new price tag may have consequences, like "probable elimination of elements the department has deemed necessary for its mission," the Patriot writes.
The committee asked builders to see if meeting the $18 million price was possible, and they will reconvene on July 29.
Some of the proposed cuts to the more costly plans include elimination of elimination of the meeting room and kitchen, one of two day rooms, the district commissioners’ office, and a display area for historic apparatus.
“The two trucks are very dear to me,” Peter Cross, a resident who attends the meetings and proposed the cuts, told the Patriot. “My grandfather probably drove both of them.” Cross questioned, however, if the trucks are “key to the mission of the Hyannis Fire Department.”
The committee hopes to find a price that taxpayers will find acceptable, probably around $15 to $18 million.
Fire Chief Harold Brunelle says he understood taxpayers' concerns about the pricy new station, but that he felt "shoehorned” in the existing station. “What do you want to cut off,” he says, “my arm or my leg?”
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