OCEAN PINES, Md.- The Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department recently received a $1.35 million grant from the state of Maryland to renovate and expand the department's south fire station.
Fire Department leadership plans to discuss more details about the project with the Ocean Pines public during a town hall, tentatively scheduled for May.
Fire Department Chief Steve Grunewald and President David VanGasbeck said the renovation is necessary because the current building, constructed in 1981, is undersized and does not meet the needs of the department and the community.
Among the issues with the current space, VanGasbeck said the kitchen floods during heavy rains, there is mold throughout the building, and the living quarters are “totally inadequate.” He compared the living area to a sardine can.
“Two years ago, we had gas lines that literally fell out of the ceiling,” VanGasbeck said, adding the building also does not meet National Fire Protection Association and Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
VanGasbeck said the project is part renovation and part new construction. The existing bays, where fire and EMS vehicles are housed, will remain intact.
“It is a renovation in the sense that we are retaining the existing three bays,” he said. “We are adding a two-story building … and we are going to add another bay and a work area.”
VanGasbeck said the extra bay would house a third EMS vehicle, which currently stays at the north fire station. The two-story building would house the rest of the operation, which includes storage, office space, and living quarters.
Grunewald said the bottom line is that expanded quarters would last the fire department roughly 50 years and allow firefighters and EMS to keep their six-minute response time within the Ocean Pines community.
“That’s very important when you’re looking at any type of medical emergency and even any type of fire,” he said. “Time is the essence and, in this business … thirty seconds to a minute makes a huge difference.
“If you look at the fires that we’ve had [and] the quick response, if we didn’t have a fire department here [in Ocean Pines], you’re looking at 15-20 minutes,” Grunewald continued. “Instead of burning one house down, you’d burn a block down.”
He added, in case of a medical emergency like a cardiac arrest, a patient would have “no chance of survival” with a 15-20-minute response time.
“Time is important. We also need to have the appropriate living spaces to actually provide these jobs,” Grunewald said, adding that competition from other agencies is fierce.
“Statistically in the United States, 5% of individuals that join a fire department actually stay with that department until they retire. So, if we've got 10 cadets maybe we’ll [keep] one, at best,” he said.
Grunewald said the older demographic in Ocean Pines means calls are likely to increase in the future, while the department continues to struggle with workforce issues. Both he and VanGasbeck said a renovated station is essential to help recruit and retain staff.
In November, VanGasbeck said Ocean Pines General Manager John Viola recommended that fire department officials meet with local and state representatives. That eventually included Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, Del. Wayne Hartman, County Commissioners Chip Bertino and Jim Bunting, and a representative for U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, along with Larry Perrone and Doug Parks from the Ocean Pines Board and Bank of Ocean City President and CEO Reid Tingle.
“The chief and I have been working on this for over a year, getting our feasibility study ready,” VanGasbeck said. “In November, we got to the point where John recommended to us … that we should probably meet with the politicos to start talking about funding.
“The whole idea of that was to show them [the state of the facility] … and to talk in terms of how we could get funding,” VanGasbeck added. “The product of that meeting was people going back and looking to see what they could do.”
The current estimate for the entire project is roughly $7 million.
VanGasbeck said Carozza and Hartman reached out last week to share the news that the fire department would receive $1.35 million through Gov. Larry Hogan’s supplemental budget. There is also a bond initiative through the Maryland State Legislature that could add more state funding.
“Del. Hartman and Sen. Carozza worked extraordinarily hard to get this money, and they continue to work extraordinarily hard,” VanGasbeck said. “This is not something that the chief or I could do ... that was their effort that did it.”
Fire department officials hope to come close to matching that amount with in-house funds.
“We’re trying to match it out of our savings, and we’re going to get very close to that,” VanGasbeck said.
They said the rest of the funding could come from the Ocean Pines assessment, spread out over the course of a 30-year period.
“The process from here on in is, we’re going to have a town hall, probably in the May timeframe,” VanGasbeck said. “We have a presentation … that the chief and I are working on, as well as our vendor.”
He said Carozza and Hartman also agreed to take part in the town hall.
“Subsequent to that, there will be a referendum because it’s over $1 million,” VanGasbeck said. “It would be very difficult for me to think that the community would not support that level of funding, when the state government – our delegate and our senator – worked so hard to get that part of the funding.”
“I think we’ve done a real good job planning for the future with this building,” Grunewald said. “It should have been done a while ago, but Dave and I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours planning strategically to make sure that this building, and the community, is set” for the future.
VanGasbeck and Grunewald said an announcement of the date, time and location for the town hall would be made in the next several weeks.
