For the town of Harwich's police department, the move from its old, antiquated building into its newly constructed quarters next door was only a matter of steps, but the distance between the public safety committee recommendation to replace the 1960-era police station and the completion of the new public safety facility was a seven-year journey that was traveled by retired engineer and Harwich resident, Ray Jefferson.
As the chairman of the six-member, all-volunteer Harwich police station building committee appointed by the board of selectmen, Jefferson calls the completion of the $9 million new police station and joint dispatch facility joined to the fire station a "town of Harwich success story" and "the first true public safety facility on Cape Cod."
Jefferson is quick to credit Bufftree Building Company's role in contributing to the project's success. "The total project was completed ahead of schedule, with minimal change orders and within budget, thanks to the outstanding working relationship between the general contractor Bufftree, the project manager and the town's building committee," he said. "Bufftree constructed a top-quality building that is being highly praised by both police and fire personnel. The final Certificate of Occupancy (CO) was issued in early November. The project manager stated he has never seen a CO issued this early in a project of this size."
As Jefferson describes, the entire process entailed a series of critical steps. Through the issuance of an RFP, as required by state mandate for municipal projects, the building committee selected Construction Management Services (CMS) as the project manager.
Next, after visiting several newly constructed police and fire stations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the building committee selected the architectural firm of Kaestle Boos Associates of Foxboro, for its considerable experience in designing police and fire stations. Jefferson says the lessons learned during the course of these visits greatly assisted the committee in choosing the architect. Six months of needs assessment produced the final drawings for a 21,000 s/f, two-story, basement and renovated dispatch area in the existing fire station. With the selection of Bufftree as the general contractor, the last step was getting funding approval at the May 2008 town meeting.
Jefferson notes that Bufftree came highly recommended by the CMS project manager and the town of Wellfleet, for which Bufftree just built a new fire & rescue headquarters that opened this past spring. With Bufftree on board, the construction process encompassed three phases: the joint dispatch center was operational in July 2009; the new police station, in early August 2009; and the final phase site work was completed in September 2009.
Calling it a "showplace for other Massachusetts towns looking to find how we were able to get the police and fire departments to join into a public safety facility with jointly shared areas," Jefferson explains the common areas as the public lobby, the EOC/Training room, the records keeping room, the joint dispatch, the fitness room, the male and female locker rooms, the vehicle maintenance areas and the small vehicle and equipment storage areas.
At the building committee's final meeting, Jefferson says, the members burst into applause for Bufftree's outstanding and complete cooperation and gave Mike Woodby, Bufftree's project superintendent, a standing ovation.