IPSWICH — With a time crunch facing the architect and Public Safety Facility Committee (PSFC) to get the design and cost estimates for the new police and fire station ready for a May Town Meeting vote, the SelectBoard gave its unanimous approval for the latest design.
“We are on a super tight schedule,” Ted Gallante, the architect, told the SelectBoard. And PSFC chair Bob Weatherall said the architects are running slightly more than a week behind on the project timeline.
Gallante, who said there are still a lot of small features to be finalized, hopes to have cost estimates for the building ready in March, which PSFC chair Bob Weatherall predicted would require more money than what was previously thought. But they did not speculate this month on how much more the proposed building would cost.
Voters approved the new public safety building in 2021, but inflation in recent years in construction materials and upgrades have increased the projected costs. Weatherall has estimated that the final cost could reach $42 million.
The proposed building will be at the intersection of Linebrook and Pineswamp roads near Our Lady of Hope Parish.
The new design was widely praised by the selectpersons with brick for the exterior around the glass truck doors of the Fire Station on one end and on the exterior for the chief’s office, training and community room of the Police Station on the opposite end.
Selectperson Sarah Player said the latest design looks more like a residential building instead of a municipal block, which was one complaint voiced by residents at a series of forums. She liked using brick on about half of the front exterior and adding a front porch on the police station in the center of the proposed building.
“It makes it look more like a house,” Player said.
Selectperson Linda Alexson agreed that the new design is “much better than what we had previously.”
“The sense of the board is onward,” said Select Board chair Charles Surpitski, thanking the PSFC board and other town committees for their “hard work” on the building.
