Fire Station Working Group recommends $20,350 geotechnical contract for south-side site

WESTON — February 10, 2025 — Weston Fire Station Working Group endorses $20,350 boring contract and confronts a $917,776 staffing question. The group unanimously recommended Tecton's geotechnical boring proposal to the Permanent Building Committee and Facilities Director Gary Jarobski, with March drilling planned at the middle school site. Fire Chief Justin Woodside laid out the cost of adding eight firefighters and four lieutenant promotions — $578,530 in compensation, $188,000 in health insurance, $80,000 in retirement, $44,507 for promotions, $18,400 specialty pay and $3,339 Medicare — for a $917,776 annual increment, roughly 20 percent over the department's $4.5 million budget. "If we didn't do it, we'd have to abandon the ambulance at central station," Woodside said, because the new south-side station design breaks ambulance/ladder cross-staffing. Co-Chair Tom Palmer asked that only the years of acceleration be attributed to the project budget.