The Valley Fire Chiefs Regional Training School is hoping to lease space at the Seymour Community Center for the next four years, while the group waits for its permanent home to be built in Beacon Falls.
It will be a long-term temporary home, according to Ken Mitchell, the president of the group’s board of directors.
That’s because the new training center likely won’t be built for at least five years. Click here to read about the plans for the new school in Beacon Falls.
The Valley Fire Chiefs provide training to firefighters in nine towns — Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton and Woodbridge. Its old facility in Derby was vacated about 10 years ago when the property was designated a brownfield due to contamination.
Until a new facility is built, the group is squatting in several different places — storing equipment in fire houses, holding training sessions where ever space is available.
Right now, the Valley Fire Chiefs’ central operations are in a 10-foot by 12-foot room in the basement of an office building in downtown Ansonia. The office has enough room to store files. The board of directors doesn’t even fit in the room. They hold monthly meetings in a lunch room at the office building, Mitchell said.
“We have no space,” Mitchell said. “It’s like a big closet.”
The space at the Seymour community center is a former band room. But it is twice as large as the Valley Fire Chiefs’ current digs, Mitchell said.
If Seymour approves the four-year lease, Mitchell said the Valley Fire Chiefs hope to have enough room to store files and host training sessions.
“We can have a classroom in there. Put up a PowerPoint projector,” Mitchell said.
The Board of Selectmen Tuesday scheduled a town meeting where citizens can vote on the matter. The town meeting will be held at Seymour Town Hall at 7 p.m. on Nov. 9.
First Selectman Paul Roy said he supports the idea.
“We need to show the Valley we’re willing to take on our responsibility for housing a Valley unit,” Roy said after the meeting Tuesday.
Seymour plans to lease the space to the Valley Fire Chiefs for $200 a month, Roy said. That’s about how much the Valley Fire Chiefs pay for their office space now.
Currently the band room is only used for town storage.
