The public will have a chance to tour the town's sparkling new fire department headquarters Sunday, but the building isn't yet ready for use. Fire Chief Michael Ambriscoe said the ongoing strike by Verizon workers has delayed the building's occupancy by at least a month.
Since April 13, nearly 40,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia have been on strike, culminating 10 months of failed contract negotiations. As of early this week, the two labor unions representing the workers remained at the bargaining table with Verizon management. It is impossible to predict how long the strike will last.
The new $7.7 million, 20-600-square-foot fire station is essentially finished, Ambriscoe said. "We've already started moving in," Ambriscoe said, but the building still lacks a certificate of occupancy, which it cannot obtain until the state certifies that it has inspected the building's elevator. That inspection would have occurred many weeks ago except that the elevator's emergency telephone was not in service.
More importantly, Verizon workers have not been available to connect the 911 lines to the station's dispatch center. Earlier in the strike, a small group of non-union Verizon workers brought the telephone connection from the street into the building, but it has not yet been connected to the 911 consoles or the building's regular telephone system.
"It's in the building. Now we just need someone to hook it up," Ambriscoe said. Verizon workers are the only ones who can connect the 911 system, the chief added.
In the interest of allowing the open house to go forward, the town had Comcast install an emergency telephone line for the elevator that uses the building's high-speed internet connection.