On July 12 the Rockport Select Board will review the design and costs of a new West Rockport Fire Station, which would replace the existing building at the corners of routes 17 and 90. At the meeting, the board will also act on an application for seafood food truck to serve customers from Marine Park in Rockport Harbor.

West Rockport Fire Station

Renderings submitted to the town by 2A Architects, LLC, call for a new West Street Fire Station which would house up to four fire engines or EMS vehicles, as well as provide sleeping accommodations and a meeting room for firefighters and emergency medical technicians. The structure would cost approximately $2 million. 

The July 12 meeting will be attended by Fire Chief Jason Peasley, Amanda Austin or 2A Architects and Bill Lane of Gartley & Dorsky Engineering, the firm which provided site plans for the new fire station. 

According to plans submitted to the Town, the fire station would be approximately 5,000 square feet in size and would be set back from the busy intersection, behind where the existing fire station stands; additional parking spaces would be added to Route 17 side of the structure.

The interior floorplan includes a meeting room, two sleeping rooms, a kitchen, an office and two shower rooms. The station could potentially house four fire or EMS vehicles – twice the capacity of the existing station which was built in 1973.

In December of last year, Peasley, Austin and Lane appeared before the Select Board with an initial set of designs by 2A Architects, and Peasley described the need for a new, more comprehensive fire station at the West Rockport location.

Peasley cited inadequate space, condition and functionality of the current station and stressed that its location is much closer to the homes of the majority of volunteer firefighters than the in-town station at 85 Main St.

“The firefighters we have are more in the West Rockport area and we’re getting less and less [in town]...the four gentlemen who are on this side of town [near the Main St. station], their average age is 75 years old....None of my other firefighters can afford to live on this side of town, so West Rockport, in my opinion, is going to be the future of where the Rockport Fire Department will be,” said Peasley, last year.

One of the two fire engines housed at the existing building was built specifically to fit within the engine bays in the structure. Peasley said that the engines, each of which are 28 feet in length, have approximately two inches of space at their front and rear when they are parked within the bays. He said that the basement in the building floods on a regular basis, a water main at the front of the building is broken and the window sills have rotted.

Lane said that any potential renovation to the building would have to include completely raising the roof on the station, as well as moving the footprint of the building further back from the intersection, using a parcel of land to the rear of the building which was purchased previously by the town for that purpose.

The station would have a new water service entrance, a new underground power supply, and an eight-car parking lot.

Must Be Nice food cart

Must Be Nice Lobster of Belfast applied for a peddlers permit last month to operate a food truck from Marine Park in Rockport Harbor.

According to the application, the food truck would serve “lobster and crab rolls, grilled cheeses, salads, drinks and chips.” The applicants said they anticipated receiving a food inspection by the proposed opening date of July 14, and would operate from that location until mid-October. Hours of business would be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The next meeting of the Rockport Select Board will be held Monday, July 12 at 6 p.m. at the Rockport Opera House.