Dan Sokil
The Reporter
(TNS)
Mar. 23—UPPER GWYNEDD — Where could a new fire station for the Upper Gwynedd Township Fire Department go? And are there other options the department and township should consider?
The answers to those questions are coming into focus, with key recommendations made in a study presented to the township’s commissioners on Tuesday night.
“If you’re going to build a fire station, it’s a very sizable investment, in terms of money and time. And you want to make sure, before you do that, our first recommendation is that you reach out to your neighbors, to make sure that there either is, or isn’t, any interest in having a regional approach to fire protection” said longtime firefighter and study author Robert Hedden.
“You should really communicate, on a governmental level, with the surrounding townships and boroughs to see if there’s any interest in a regional fire department,” he said.
In March 2022 the fire company’s leadership asked the township commissioners to approve a study examining options for a new station, citing aging infrastructure, a need for more space, and stricter standards for equipment, training, and maintenance at their current station, located on Garfield Avenue and parts of which date as far back as 1942.
At that time the company said they were looking at several possible sites for a new station, and later that month the commissioners approved a contract with the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services to perform a study. Officials from the center visited the township in August, and in January 2023 the township said the study was under final vetting.
That study was finally presented on Tuesday night by Hedden, a longtime Montgomery Township firefighter now with the Governor’s Center, who summarized the 30-page report to the township commissioners. In a series of meetings and in-person visits, the study group gathered data from the fire company and township staff about their service area, calls, staffing, and the sites they’re considering for a potential new station.
“They suggested several sites, and we included also the existing site, in case there was just some reason that it was determined the fire department should continue to operate out of there,” Hedden said.
Consider regionalizing
Prior to making a decision on a new station, the expert told the board, his recommendation is that the township and fire company consider options for regionalizing, due to issues seen across the state with firefighters aging out of local departments and few new recruits.
“If you go through that process, and it’s determined that yes, there is (interest), then we’re available to come back and do a regional fire study. Or if there isn’t, then we have a recommendation where the ideal station would be, in Upper Gwynedd, based on the sites we were asked to evaluate,” Hedden said.
Four locations were vetted by the study: the current fire station site on the 600 block of Garfield Avenue, a site on the 1600 block of West Point Pike, and two adjacent sites at the intersection of Allentown Road and Sumneytown Pike on the west and east corners. The study first eliminated the West Point Pike site due to its location within a floodplain zone, and based on several criteria spelled out in the report, including access to main roads and the rest of the township, the study commission honed in on one site.
“We suggest that the best location out of the sites would be the west corner of Allentown and Sumneytown Pike, it’s an 11.8-acre lot,” Hedden said.
“The location is optimal: it’s nearly centrally lo