Town to Celebrate Big Projects on 1-Year Anniversaries

Hampton will soon commemorate the completion of two multimillion-dollar projects during special ceremonies on each of those projects' one-year anniversaries.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Hampton Beach fire station will be held on Thursday, Dec. 12, while a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Winnacunnet Road fire station's addition and renovations will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 17, according to Fire Chief Chris Silver, who announced the dates at Monday's Hampton Board of Selectmen meeting.

Dec. 12 and Dec. 17 are the respective one-year anniversaries of the start of the work at each station. The $5.7 million projects give the Hampton Fire Department much-needed additional apparatus, storage and crew space, as well as move dispatch entirely over to Winnacunnet Road.

A new Hampton Beach fire station has been a wish of many Hampton firefighters and administrators for decades. The new 12,000-square-foot station is nearly double the size of the old station, which was demolished Monday, and features a variety of new, greatly-needed amenities.

Among them is a drastically larger — and taller — apparatus bay, which is complete with an exhaust emission system for each vehicle in order to prevent carcinogenic diesel fumes from filling the bay when the vehicles are running, according to Silver.

The station also has a series of two-bunk, self-contained dorm rooms for crew members. Silver said this will help immensely during storms, as they used to have to borrow basic portable cots and set them up on the second floor of the old station.

A 35-person meeting room for the Hampton Beach Village District is also included on the second floor of the Brown Avenue station, that way the district's Precinct can still hold its regular meetings. Silver said individuals using that room have access to it through a secure side stairwell that will allow them entrance to only that area after regular business hours.

Among the other new features are built-in flood venting and a higher overall elevation to avoid some of the flooding issues that sometimes plague Brown Avenue. The station still has a walk-in medical center and a fire pole — two key features of the old building, according to Silver.

"I really think it does look good," said Silver. "The aesthetics fit in well with the rest of the beach."