Plans for Somerville’s new Emergency Services Complex on North Gaston Avenue are taking final shape, Mayor Dennis Sullivan announced today. The Borough will soon enter into construction and financing agreements with Stonewater LLC. to design and build the structure that will house the Police Department and consolidate the Fire Department. Both entities currently occupy antiquated and inefficient facilities throughout the town. “Public safety is a top priority for any community,” said the Mayor. “This is the largest and most important public project that Somerville has undertaken since the High School was opened in 1970. I am proud to be a part of this administration that has shown such dedication and determination to get us to this point. The new complex is our legacy to future Somerville residents,”
Councilman Gran Brady, Chairman of the Borough’s Finance Committee, continued, “We are exploring a lease-purchase arrangement with Stonewater that will allow the project to be built quickly without adding long-term debt to our municipal budget. Revenue from current and future PILOT sources will cover the yearly costs of the complex, so that there should not be any dramatic tax increases over the term of the lease, at the end of which the Borough will assume ownership of the site. Once the Borough Departments move in, the Borough will have valuable land for redevelopment that will bring new ratables to town,” Brady added.
“I can’t wait to break ground,” concluded the Mayor. “This was years in the making, and in the end our first responders will have a state-of-the-art home that will serve Somerville for the next fifty years. The good people of Somerville deserve no less than the best protection we can provide.”
The Borough Council is expected to vote on the agreements with Stonewater once all the legal documents are finalized by the Borough’s professional team, hopefully sometime this summer. The facility could be on line by the spring of 2024.