AUBURN, Mass. - Voters in Auburn overwhelmingly approved the building of a new fire station to replace a building they’ve been in for 40 years.
What You Need To Know
- The Auburn Fire Department will be building a new station on Prospect Street to replace their West Street station and become the new headquarters
- On May 6, 2025 Town Meeting overwhelmingly voted to approve the funding plan for the proposed station
- The full project approval was voted on through a Debt Exclusion Vote on May 20, 2025
- According to the Fire Station Building Committee, the borrowing of $23 million will result in an annual tax increase of $186.93 on the median assessed home value of $394,800; an increase of $46.73 per quarter
“This has been a long time coming,” AFD Chief Stephen Coleman said.
The Auburn Fire Department has two stations and Chief Coleman said it’s been a unique situation on West Street.
“We're trying to operate a modern day, professional fire and EMS agency out of the confines of a 74-year-old elementary school," Coleman said, "and that can be really challenging day to day.”
The building opened as Randall Elementary School in 1951 The fire department then started using it as a second station to cover the west end of town.
“We moved in in 1985, which was supposed to be, sort of just a temporary location until the town could figure out what the future plan would be," Coleman said. "And, you know, it took 40 years to get to this point.”
From locker rooms to bunking quarters and just about every corner of the building, Coleman said the department needs an upgrade as they respond to more than 5,300 total calls a year.
“As the department has grown, as we've added full time staff, this building just became very quickly antiquated," Coleman said, "in a very short period of time.”
As the department’s grown, so has the town itself and Coleman said the new station at 10 Prospect Street will cover the needs of Auburn.
“There's a lot of new housing developments going up," Coleman said. "The business community is very active out here. So, a new modern day fire headquarters in the west end, not only is it going to serve the town as a whole in a much better way, but it'll be a much better presence for us in the west end of town.”
And now, as Auburn voters said ‘yes’ to building a new fire station, the work begins and Coleman said ‘thank you’s’ are in order.
“We just want to really thank the voters and the citizens of Auburn. They have been supporters of ours, really, at every turn," Coleman said. "And although we were nervous about how this vote was going to go, the fact that it was overwhelming, it just it's a testament to the to the men and women that work here.”
Right now, the estimated move-in date for the new station is some time in December 2027.
