Hi Dimitra,

Marty had a very serious family emergency so was not with us, but Bill Rakow very kindly showed my the plans for the new firehouse and we walked the area very carefully.

He had the new plans....as of Thursday.

They show a distance of 70 feet from the Crow's Nest Lane homes.That is a greater distance than those on the other side of the present firehouse. I believe the original plan showed  a distance of  40 ft.

The parking lot starts a few feet from the edge of the paved area adjacent to the Pavillion.

Happily, the playground in front of the Pavillion seems to be safe according to what I saw. Nothing will change there.

There are only two really large trees that will be affected....one of which is at the rear of the parking lot and might...if we make a big deal of it....be able to be saved.

The trees are rather sparse in the area where the building will be  and would not be a huge loss. The bigger trees will be behind the building and could remain untouched. We should see that they are!

I can say that I feel MUCH.....MUCH BETTER after having seen the plan.

It is in the GM's office and I don't see any reason why those who are intersted couldn't get a copy of it.

The building is not so terribly big, and if the parking lot is gravel or is laid with pervious pavers, the stormwater management might be able to be solved without a pond...or it would seem to be so.

People are getting more and more creative as we have to deal with this issue every time a square foot of space is altered.

As far as the future use is concerned, I think that they are putting in space for a bunk room and kitchen looking to the time when the station will be manned at all times.

Maybe not around here....but trend around the state is toward phasing out volunteer fire companies. It will cost the taxpayers a LOT of money to do that.

I was talking to a volunteer fireman from another county the other day and he thinks we will see the end of the VFD's sooner than later. If we are lucky in OP, it will be later.

The OPVFD does not want..and will not  have OPA as a landlord.....and who can blame them? OPA let the current building fall into total disrepair and there is no excuse for it.

They want their own building and this area of the park seems to be the only spot for it that has access to Ocean Parkway.

I called around to find out who owned the land next to Rt. 90 on Ocean Parkway across the the golf course and was told that it is a "open space land reserve / preserve"...or something of the sort.That is the only other space that I could find on the map.

Go to the park and check out the space. I don't like it ...but we need a firehouse and I suppose this is the best we can do.

Now that I have seen it up close ...and know what I am looking at ...I guess I can live with it.

UNLESS...they change the plan again. 

Nancy