Lakeville breaks ground on a ‘piece of history’ with the town’s new fire station

LAKEVILLE — For decades Lakeville firefighters have felt the harm and constraints of an aging fire station. On Friday, a new, safer future broke ground at the site of the new station. 

Town officials, members of the Lakeville Fire Department and community members gathered at the site of the town’s new fire station, located next to the Lakeville Police Department, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the $21.4 million development.

“Without the town officials and the residents that have rallied behind it, none of this would have ever happened,” Lakeville Fire Chief Michael O’Brien said.

The Lakeville Fire Department has been operating out of its 346 Bedford St. location since it was established in 1949. 

O’Brien has said the building, originally built to be a water pumping station,  was never intended to be a fire station. Despite all the upgrades and modifications it's seen over the years, many issues persist.

Cramped engine bays, outdated communication systems and contamination risks have left the department at an operational and safety disadvantage. The new station marks a critical step into a safer future for both first responders and residents, O’Brien said.

“I'm almost 34 years into my career, and there's a little reel of faces that are going through my mind. Firefighters that are no longer with us anymore — firefighters that I worked with who were taken down by occupational cancer,” O’Brien said.

Knowing first responders will be more likely to retire healthy and in “one piece,” and the department's increased ability to respond to emergencies quickly makes the "tremendous effort worth it” O’Brien said.

Select Board Vice Chair Lorraine Carboni, who has worked closely with the Fire Station Building Committee, said through months of behind-the-scenes work by town officials, developer Pomroy Associates and town departments, support from residents was always evident.

“This is a piece of history that residents have started and supported,” Carboni said. “They can look at this every day, and say, ‘I was part of that.’”

Voters approved a temporary tax increase at a 2024 Town Meeting that raised $21.4 million for the new station. 

Carboni and Town Administrator Andrew Sukeforth praised townspeople for backing a project benefiting both the town and first responders.

“The fire department has done a great job over their history, and I think they’re finally get rewarded for that with the new station,” Sukeforth said.

State Rep. Norman Orrall, who represents and lives in Lakeville, said despite the high cost, the taxpayers stepped up to show their belief in and support of the fire department.

“For the men and women of the fire department, this project is really a testament to their hard work that's reflected by the support from the taxpayers,” Orrall said.

Retired Deputy Chief WilIiam Purcell said firefighters have voiced their concerns about the station’s problems for years, including the 33 years he spent there. 

At the current station, he and present-day first responders struggle to fit vehicles into the engine bays, lack sufficient equipment to remove cancer-causing particles from gear, and spend time in a building with heat and septic issues and jerry-rigged communication methods.

“These [first responders] now have better working conditions, and hopefully with the better conditions they can retain some of these people,” Purcell said, noting the high turnover of EMS personnel across the state.

Retired Fire Lieutenant Michael Moriarty, who worked at the department for 29 years, said the department needed a new station decades ago, but lacked the timing and funding to build it. 

“We’d think ‘let’s ride it out,’ and someday it will come. Today is the ‘someday,’” he said.

David Debest, a call-volunteer fire captain at the department, said the groundbreaking marked “the initial step in seeing our dream of getting into a modern building, something that’s safer and provides access to what we need.”