Firefighters Displaced 6 Months as Firehouse Remediation Continues

CAPE MAY – At the Cape May City Council meeting Jan. 21, Volunteer Fire Company President James Matthews reminded council that the city’s career firefighters have been displaced from their living quarters for 183 days, a full half-year, due to mold infestation, a failed first effort at remediation and an ongoing second effort.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Hendricks expressed concern for the plight of the firefighters and for “the amount of money we have spent on this problem,” money which Matthews reminded the council is being spent on a building everyone agrees will be demolished.
A city advisory committee has worked on plans for a new combined public safety building on the site of the existing firehouse since 2017. The issue has been the source of controversy in the city, with some arguing for the combined complex and others favoring separate new buildings for the police and fire departments.
As 2020 dawns, none of the varied conceptual designs for the combined building have been adopted, leaving the firefighters and police officers working in what all sides agree are deplorable conditions.
Matthews’ message was clear: “Do something, please.”
The firefighter’s union has written to the city, asking for a timetable for full remediation, but no schedule was publically discussed at the council meeting.
In November 2019, City Manager Neil Young said the firefighters were not living in the area of the building impacted by the mold infestation. He also stated that the city would have the building tested for air-born mold before any decision to bring in trailers as an alternative living arrangement. No trailers have materialized, and the effort at remediation continues two months later.
For now, 15 bunks have been relocated to the station common room. This relocation of living quarters took place in summer 2019, and continues in mid-January 2020.
According to Matthews, the first contractor the city used to repair leaks that allowed moisture into the walls and baseboards failed at the task. Remediation of the mold was accomplished, but recurring moisture brought it back. Now, city workers are attempting the repairs.
Any discussion of the mold problem in the firehouse soon morphs into one about the proposed public safety building. Moving into the third year since the advisory committee on the proposed building began its work, and two years after the first funds were appropriated for conceptual site planning, the city is without a consensus on future direction.
General agreement that the police and fire departments exist and work in dilapidated space has not motivated a formal decision for action to replace the space.
For the firefighters, that indecision translates into six months of dislocation from infested living quarters.
For the chief of police, it leads to frequent articulation to council members of his fear that delay will result in a decision that leaves the police department outside looking in. At the January meeting, Chief Anthony Marino again cautioned that the police officers can’t “be left behind” in any decision on new quarters.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.