Ansonia Aldermen awarded a $163,783 contract Tuesday to a Wolcott-based construction business to shore up the floor of the Webster Hose Hook & Ladder Co. 3 firehouse on Platt Street.
In June, firefighters discovered the concrete floor was crumbling.
The firehouse’s two trucks were then relocated to the Ansonia Rescue Medical Services building on West Main Street, which has increased response times for the fire company’s volunteers.
Once construction begins — the tax board needs to approve funding for the work first — replacing the floor will take about three months.
The firehouse was built in the 1940s, according to city property records, and the floor there has been replaced once already, in the 1970s.
Peter Georgetti, an engineer from the Prime AE group, told Aldermen at their October meeting that water had seeped into the floor over the years, rusting out a metal underneath, causing the floor to crumble.
The new floor will have more steel strengthening it, he said, as well as waterproofed concrete.
The floor put in the 70s was “a little underdesigned,” Georgetti said, based on the evolution of fire apparati over the years.
“Trucks are getting heavier,” he said.
Webster Hose Captain Ken Mitchell told the Aldermen in October that not having the trucks at the firehouse has increased response time.
“We’ve been out of there now, unable to house the apparatus there for four months,” Mitchell said. “It has compromised response times, it’s compromising fire protection in the Third Ward as well as the other areas we serve.”
The problem will only get worse in the coming months, he pointed out.
“With winter months coming, historically rates of incidents go up, our call volume goes up, road conditions diminish, and it’s going to increase response time more with us not being at our fire station,” he said.
The city received seven bids for the project last month, the lowest of which was from JA Rosa Construction LLC.
Aldermen voted unanimously to award the bid Tuesday, provided the tax board finds money to fund the project, which officials said will most likely come from the city’s contingency fund.
Dan King, the tax board’s chairman, told the Aldermen he’d try to schedule a special meeting of his board as soon as possible.
Update Dec. 10: A special meeting of the tax board has been scheduled for Monday (Dec. 14) at 7 p.m. in City Hall.
Georgetti told Aldermen that the construction would take about 90 days.
After Tuesday’s vote, Mitchell said he hopes the work moves quickly.
“We’ve been kind of waiting in the wings here for six months, more than six months,” he said. “It’s been a long process. Hopefully like they said it’ll be (done) expeditiously now.”
