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Future Home of Firehouse
This is the parcel on Route 44 in East Putnam that will someday be the new home for the East Putnam Fire District's new firehouse. Putnam Town Crier file photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
E. PUTNAM --- State Senator Donald E. Williams Jr. is stepping in to help the East Putnam Fire District find more state funding to help build the district's badly needed new firehouse.
A request for $500,000 in state funding was turned down.
State Senate Pro Tem Williams, who recently toured the 50-year old inadequate firehouse on Rt. 44, pledged to help the district find more state funding.
Williams, a long time advocate for the new firehouse efforts, said while he is disappointed the town did not win STEAP funding for the project, he is "committed to working with the town and the delegation to identify possible funding sources."
The town last year had submitted a $500,000 request for a Small Town Economic Assistant Program (STEAP) grant on behalf of the East Putnam Fire District. It was turned down.
Meanwhile U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney, 2nd District, last year garnered a $3.3 million low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development , for the $4.6 million project. Town Administrator Douglas M. Cutler said the grant money would come into the town’s coffers and then the town would distribute it to the East Putnam Fire District.
The way USDA low-interest loans work, Cutler said, is that the East Putnam Fire District, using temporary borrowing, builds the fire station and then receives the USDA low-interest loan. When the town looks for temporary loans, it uses a financial expert to create a request for temporary borrowing, a bond authorization. It could be similar a bid request or a negotiated plan. The district would be looking for the best loan deal, low interest, good terms. That is the funding that would be used for construction. When the construction is finished, the district pays back that loan with the USDA loan and the USDA loan is repaid over a long period of time, perhaps 30 years, at a low-interest rate.
The 13,062-square foot station would be built on 21 acres west of the current fire station built in 1955 on leased land on Rt. 44. The existing fire station contains 3,132 square feet of space, with major deficiencies that cannot be addressed as it sits on a piece of leased land. The district started saving money for the project — “whenever that day came” — around 2001, Fire District Board President Douglas Cutler said. Thus far, the district has spent about $450,000 on buying the 21 acres further west on Rt. 44, including costs and another $30,000 on an architect’s advice and design work. He said they are finishing working with the architects and engineers on construction documents and that work should come to about $185,000. So between $650,000 and $750,000 will have been spent thus far.
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