New Onset Fire Station on track for completion in May

Mar 25, 2021

Although the new Onset Fire Station’s construction has been delayed by about 30 days, the building is on track to be complete by the middle of May.

Project manager Joe Sullivan reported progress on the building, located at 8 Sand Pond Rd. behind the old Salvation Army, during the Onset Fire Station Building Committee’s March 25 meeting. 

“Progress is moving along very quickly,” Sullivan said. 

He said work is being done on paving and concrete siding. Drywall is complete in the interior administration area and some of the walls have been painted. All of the exterior “storefront” doors have also been installed, Sullivan said.

“There’s a lot of miscellaneous hardware and installation of final fixtures and finishes within the whole facility,” he said.

The original goal was to have the fire department operating out of the new station by April 1, but the coronavirus caused some setbacks. 

“The pandemic actually created a little bit of a delay with some of the building materials that were held off because of the plants closing down,” Sullivan explained. 

He said many of the overhead doors came later than anticipated and some of the mechanical equipment came late as well, leaving the project roughly 30 days behind schedule.

“Our goal still is we’re shooting for the middle of May for completion,” he said. “That’s pretty good considering a nine-month shutdown with everything, you know?” 

Committee Chair David Halberstadt was quick to praise the team’s safety measures. 

“And nobody got sick,” Halberstadt said. “That was even more important. They did an amazing job on the site.”