Local green light for new ambulance station, medical offices
Sept. 2, 2022 | By Lee Kahrs | Correspondent
The building sites for the new Waterbury Ambulance Service station and Copley medical offices lie to the west of Vermont Rt. 100 on a hill. The small building on the Bourne's Energy parcel shown in this aerial photo will be removed. Photo by Gordon Miller
Waterbury Ambulance Service and Copley Health Systems have received local permitting approval to build a new 6,600-square-foot station and adjacent 9,900-square-foot orthopedic medical office along Vermont Route 100 in Waterbury.
The Waterbury Development Review Board approved the plans with conditions at its Aug. 17 meeting.
The ambulance service project comes after years of searching for a location and years of fundraising to build a larger ambulance station. The current price tag is $3 million. The ambulance service has raised $2.3 million so far and has a number of fundraising events scheduled in the coming weeks, according to Administrator Maggie Burke.
Waterbury Ambulance Service Executive Director Mark Podgwaite said Copley Health Systems approached the nonprofit a year ago about partnering to build an adjacent medical office and share site development expenses. The site is a portion of the Sayah farm along Route 100 north of the intersection with Guptil Road.
“It’s great news,” Podgwaite said of the development board's approval. “It’s been five years, three different sites, and three different plans, but here we are.”
Copley Health Systems has not replied to requests for comment on the project.
The 74-acre parcel is owned by Charles Sayah, and there is a purchase and sales agreement in place, according to project consultant Chris Austin. The proposed subdivision will create a 5.1-acre lot for the new ambulance station, a second lot measuring just under 19 acres for the Copley medical building, and the remaining 50 acres will remain undeveloped.
Bourne’s, Inc. owns the small parcel near the proposed entrance to the site. Bournes will retain ownership, Austin said, but the shed structure there will be removed.
According to the planners, the Copley office building will contain exam rooms, conference rooms, x-ray facilities, and a waiting area. Copley is expected to move current orthopedic offices in downtown Waterbury to the new location.
The ambulance building will have four garage bays, restrooms, a meeting room, a day room, a kitchen, bunk room, laundry facilities, and a decontamination area.
At the development board meeting an exemption from the state Act 250 land use permitting process was discussed. It is anticipated regarding the impact to the prime agricultural soils on the site due to the size and slope of the prime agricultural soils area. Screening for both buildings by the existing evergreen trees was discussed. The area of trees to be removed to open up the sight distance from the main entrance looking to the south will be maintained to prevent trees from re-growing in the future.
“It’s remarkable how few trees will need to be cut,” Austin said. “Great care has been taken to screen off-site.”
Given the topography of the site, the buildings will be located up above the road and not visible from Route 100, Austin noted.
A traffic study for the project indicated that the number of trips in and out of the site at the peak time between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. is anticipated to be below the threshold of 34 trips per hour which requires additional traffic study.
The Waterbury Ambulance Service provides emergency medical response in Waterbury, Duxbury and Moretown, and mutual aid to other nearby agencies such as Stowe, Richmond and Mad River EMS operations. Its annual budget is roughly $450,000 with funding coming from subscriptions, insurance reimbursements, and municipal contributions including $54,000 from Waterbury taxpayers this year.
The Waterbury Select Board in July pledged $76,000 to the ambulance project from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds coming to the town. The allocation would need voter approval on Town Meeting Day. The ambulance service is looking to Moretown and Duxbury as well for contributions from their federal funding.
The Waterbury Ambulance Service has long outgrown the 2,400 square-foot station behind the town garage on Guptil Road, built in 1983 by high school students in a construction technology class. The nonprofit has grown exponentially since then and requires more garage space, a conference room, bunk rooms, a laundry facility, and additional equipment storage.
Most recently, the station became the local center for COVID-19 testing for months at the height of the pandemic, and the already cramped storage areas have been packed with testing and vaccination supplies. Podgwaite has described how a new ambulance on order for delivery in 2023 will not fit in the current station garage.
The Waterbury Backcountry Rescue Team is part of the ambulance service. The team responds to search and rescue calls in remote and mountainous areas surrounding Waterbury. Its equipment including a truck, ATVs, snowmobile, command trailer, “snowbulance,” and trailers currently are housed in several locations around the community due to a lack of space at the ambulance station.
The Development Review Board’s approval came with several conditions:
• That brush and limb clearing for sight distances to the south be done annually.
• That the plans reflect the easement for the part of the stormwater facility to be located on the Bourne’s parcel.
• That generator pads be added to the site plan when they are known.
Podgwaite said they had hoped to break ground this fall, but it will likely be spring when that happens. In the meantime, fundraising efforts continue.
“We’re really excited,” he said. “We want to thank everyone for their continued support. We’re really looking forward to the big move and increasing our services to the public.”
The ambulance service plans a fundraising concert and silent auction at the Double E in Essex Junction on Sunday, Sept. 11, from 4-7 p.m. with live music by The Grift and food trucks. Details online at waterburyambulance.org