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6/30/2008 2:59:31 PM

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Section 5: OPA Board
Subject: WHP/New Fire House Msg# 572857

From:

Nancy Weber

Joined 5/5/2004

To:

Joe Reynolds (Read) OceanPinesForum.com

Joined 8/1/1999

Joe,

I was only thinking of the fire department issues

Our oldest fire house in Silver Spring has been replaced with a beautiful new Fire House / Police Station with lots of meeting space.

The volunteer fire department owns the smaller brick firehouse across the street on Georgia Ave. in the heart of downtown Silver Spring, and it is going to be turned into a "The Firehouse Pub".

We are happy about that because the building is historic and the developers have been salivating over the property for some time. We won't have to fight a battle to get it on the Historic Register. It will NOT become a 15 story highrise!

This is working well for us here, but I wouldn't want it to happen to White Horse Park.

If Worcester goes to paid professional firemen, wouldn't the county just lease the building from OPA?

We need a firehouse, no matter what..that is why it might make sense to just go ahead and build a decent building that will last a hundred years.

Nancy

For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where:

If our fire company is not voluteer anymore, will the county own the building?

No. Under the terms of OPA's long-standing contract (unchanged), if the fire department is ever dissolved all property, equipment, etc. becomes the property of OPA.

Also, OPA is required to provide fire protection (not EMS) by virtue of the Declarations of Restrictions and/or the Articles of Incorporation. If the volunteers disappear then OPA would have choices. It could contract with Showell Fire Department, for example, or it could hire full time fire fighters, just as it has done to meet a similar DR requirement saying OPA must provide police protection. That requirement has sure come a long way from the minimal way to comply with the DRs via a couple of contract security guards.

You are probably confused relative to the dissolution of OPA itself. In that case I believe the county would take over all OPA common property.

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