QUECHEE — The Hartford Fire Department will temporarily house two first responders at its fire station in Quechee as part of a year-long “staffing study” to help reduce response times in that village and West Hartford, according to Fire Chief Scott Cooney.
The station — little more than a double-bay garage on Willard Road known as Hartford Station 2 — is currently unstaffed. If the extra presence benefits the department, Cooney plans to pursue a $500,000 plan to renovate the Quechee station and add permanent living quarters to house firefighters and paramedics there full-time.
During a virtual Selectboard meeting Tuesday night, board members unanimously voted to grant Cooney’s request to lease a temporary two-bedroom trailer outside the Quechee station in order to study the effects of having first responders on-call in the area.
Cooney said the $2,000-per-month cost of leasing the trailer will come from a $35,000 budget item the board approved in July to install a new fire suppression system in the Quechee station. He said the department is currently reviewing trailer options, but that they hope to sign a lease before the end of the year.
Once the trailer is leased, the department will move two of its five first responders from the main Hartford station on 812 VA Cutoff Road to work out of the temporary trailer over the course of the year.
During that time, the department will “evaluate call volume, reduction in response time data, the effects of maintaining staffing levels to support two stations and the impact on fire department operations,” Cooney wrote in a proposal attached to Tuesday’s Selectboard agenda.
The plan follows several years during which the department has seen an increase in calls, Cooney wrote in the proposal. During that increase, they have also noticed a difference in the time it takes first responders to get to the five Hartford villages.
Response times in other Hartford villages average about 7 minutes, 45 seconds, but the average response time for calls to West Hartford and Quechee is almost double that, the proposal said.
“The greatest disparity in delivering emergency services townwide is the total response time from the VA Cutoff (road) station to the Quechee and West Hartford villages,” Cooney wrote.
The proposed renovations to the station, which Cooney may pursue depending on the results of the staffing study, include an addition with a living area and two or four bedrooms, according to initial plans.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.