Barnstable Town Officials Want County to Shut Down Fire Academy

CCB MEDIA PHOTO Barnstable Town Hall.

CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Barnstable Town Hall.

BARNSTABLE – The Town of Barnstable wants the Barnstable County Fire Training and Rescue Academy closed and wants to be compensated for the cleanup of wells that were contaminated by chemicals used at the facility.

Around $772,000 has been spent by the town to install carbon treatment systems to clean two wells off Mary Dunn Road.

The town is also asking for a $3 million assurance payment in the settlement agreement to cover continuing remediation efforts.

According to a seven page letter delivered by the town to the county, treatment systems will cost over $298,000 a year to operate and will require routine maintenance and repair.

The town has given the county a deadline of March 6 to respond to the letter or else they could face litigation.

“We have asked them to take action to fully remediate the contamination that’s out there on the county property and to do that at the county’s sole cost and expense,” said Barnstable Town Manager Tom Lynch. “We want to be reimbursed for the costs that have been incurred to date.”

The two affected wells at the Mary Dunn Road location were closed last spring after a component of firefighting foams were found in the drinking water.

The wells are among 11 that provide drinking water to 18,000 residential and business customers in Hyannis.

Lynch said that the town wants to resolve this issue soon.

“Enough time has passed that we just couldn’t wait any longer to put this in further writing so that they’ll hopefully sit down and talk with us about this,” said Lynch.

The Barnstable County Fire and Rescue Training Academy Building Needs Study Committee recently recommended that the facility remain open.

The committee determined that the facility is important in continuing the training of 20 fire departments on the Cape and it could cost $8.5 million to close the academy.

County officials outlined that it could take up to five years to correct issues that the committee recommended.

By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter

About CapeCod.com NewsCenter

The award-winning CapeCod.com NewsCenter provides the Cape Cod community with a constant, credible source for local news. We are on the job seven days a week.

Speak Your Mind

*



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy