Room to move: Passero to provide civil and site engineering for new firehouse in Churchville

The Churchville Volunteer Fire Department and ambulance corps will soon have a new, modern facility from which to perform their vital service to the community. Groundbreaking on the Churchville Firehouse is planned for early June and completion is expected in the spring of 2009. The new firehouse will be located in the village of Churchville, in the southwest portion of Monroe County. The department serves the village, the surrounding town of Riga, and a portion of the neighboring town of Ogden. Operating out of an undersized facility that is over 60 years old has been a challenge for the department, which currently has about 70 members and five major pieces of fire and rescue apparatus. Planning began in earnest for a new firehouse in 2003 with the purchase of 18 acres for the facility from a local farmer. This property, which adjoins the Riga town hall, was then annexed to the village of Churchville. The central location on Washington St. (Rte. 36) provides the department with easy access to its service area. The facility will be situated on a total of 18 acres, with room for training activities and other future uses. The new firehouse will be three times the size of the current facility and will house all of the department's equipment and apparatus adequately, with the proper amount of space around each vehicle required for efficient access and use. The apparatus section of the facility will have eight vehicle bays, five in front and three in back, including three drive-thru bays. The attached auxiliary section of the firehouse will be equipped with an exercise facility, a large meeting room, a commercial kitchen, offices, and training centers. There are no sleeping quarters, as Churchville is a volunteer department. At just under 19,000 s/f, the building is in the mid-range of facilities of this type. Passero Associates is providing civil and site engineering and architectural design with Peter Wehner, AIA, LEED AP serving as senior project architect. Wehner has designed six other fire halls, including facilities in Gates and Hamlin. Wehner said, "We worked closely with the fire department and the community to determine the most cost-effective design solution that would meet the department's current needs and accommodate future use." A design committee was formed to plan the site layout and architectural design. Several public information sessions were held to gain public support and address the concerns of the community. The $4.2 million project has multiple funding sources from both the village and town. Steve Gulvin, president of the Churchville volunteer fire department, said, "We were pleased with the design process. This was new territory for our department and we were concerned about getting everything right, but we found that the people involved were very receptive to our needs." LeChase Construction is serving as the construction manager for the project. Local firehouse construction is a specialty of LeChase, which has built new facilities in Gates, Hilton and Webster, and has completed additions and renovations in Victor and Laurelton. Lyle Corey, senior VP of LeChase, said, "One challenge of this project has been to keep the project under budget during a time of price escalation for materials, but we're working hard to keep the cost down while providing a quality facility for the department." The Churchville Firehouse will be constructed using a pre-engineered building structure frame and sidewalls manufactured by American Building Systems. The remainder of the project will be completed using conventional materials. The Churchville volunteer fire department has served the community for well over 100 years. In 2007, the department completed over 619 calls and logged over 6,000 hours of volunteer service. Kim Perry is a marketing manager and webmaster at Passero Associates, Rochester, N.Y.