ANDOVER – Convinced that East Andover’s bad-accident-waiting-to-happen fire station needs to be replaced, Ken Dixon decided to do it himself without town approval.
Removing his fire chief hat and donning his Andover Firemen’s Association guise, the nonprofit bought land down the road from the old station, got a building permit, and began construction with about $6,000, donated steel and volunteer labor.
In the process, he’s angered the majority of town meeting voters, who, over the years, chose not to replace the tiny 1940s station at the corner of Farmers Hill and East Andover roads.
“As long as Ken can keep the funds separated from the fire department and the association, that’s what the people are concerned about,” Selectman Hope Peterson said Friday night.
“But they’ve got a building permit and they’re not using taxpayer dollars. Still, there are some people in town who are not happy,” she said.
Peterson said what Dixon and the association did to skirt the will of the town isn’t illegal in Andover.
“Technically, the planning board had to give them a building permit. It’s going to be a while, and by the time he gets the funding, maybe these people will settle down once they realize the importance. Ken just doesn’t understand why they wouldn’t want protection to be there,” she added.
The East Andover station was built to house a military pump trailer, but it was built “in a bad place to get into, and a bad place to get out of,” assistant fire Chief Bob Hutchins said Friday afternoon.
The station just barely houses the department’s smallest firetruck, a 1977 Howe pumper that the town bought along with two others from Cliffside Park, N.J.
But to fit it in the station, firefighters had to change the door and ceiling, move the oil tank outside and reorient the furnace, Hutchins said.
The truck fits a little too snug inside with 6 inches to spare in back, and another 6 inches in front. Getting into and out of the truck requires an effort.
The driver must inch the truck forward so as not to scrape the walls and ceiling to exit the building, then risk entering East Andover Road without being able to see northbound traffic due to a high crown in the road. Additionally, Dixon said the firetruck can only turn northbound leaving the station, because the truck can’t make the tight turn to go south.
“We’ve been very fortunate that no one’s been killed driving a firetruck out of there,” Dixon said.
Last month, Dixon and association president Elaine Morton, who is also town clerk, sent a letter to residents and taxpayers requesting donations for the new station.
On Friday at the East Andover station, Dixon estimated that the new station would cost $85,000.
He said the station would provide fire protection for East Andover and keep fire insurance costs down.
“When we put a truck over there, they had a lot of chimney fires in East Andover. So, I figured if the truck was over there, people with the fire department could take it themselves until one could come” from the main station, Dixon said.
“If the station was not here, fire insurance costs would go up, because they’d be unprotected. With a station here, everyone within town limits of Andover is covered,” he added.
He said that a firetruck is also needed in East Andover, because the section is isolated from the main part of town when the Ellis River floods.
“We’ve got to do something,” Dixon added.
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