Wilmington builds climate resilient public safety headquarters
Scott Moore had heard stories from his grandfather about Vermont’s catastrophic 1938 flood. Still, the Wilmington fire chief wasn’t prepared for the devastation he witnessed during Hurricane Irene in 2011. “I never expected to see anything like that again, and actually Irene was worse,” he said.
Moore recalled how the Deerfield River sent logs and gas tanks tumbling over the top of Main Street bridge like a tidal wave. The water receded soon after it crested, but the damage lingered.
The fire department lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in gear and equipment as well as historical documents and photographs, some dating back to the department’s inception in 1858. The damage to the town police department was even more severe. Fuel oil, sewage, and sand were everywhere. Moore, who was named Chief of the fire department in 2017, said the offices were destroyed.
The town got to work repairing the damage, and both fire and police departments were operational again within a few weeks. However, the offices were still in the flood zone. Moore and other town officials realized that it would be safer and more cost-effective in the long run to move Wilmington’s public safety headquarters to higher ground.
It took years for the Town of Wilmington to gain the support and funding to move forward on the construction of a new public safety department. One Wilmington resident, Chuck Clerici, spent six years championing the effort in a volunteer capacity. After his family was stranded during Irene, he was inspired to make sure that the town’s emergency services were never hamstrung like that again.
“If your first responders are completely and thoroughly displaced, they can’t get to their stations. They can’t get to their equipment. They have no equipment.”
The town prioritized resiliency and sustainability in the new building’s design—goals that almost always include energy efficiency. Moore and the town Selectboard brought on Efficiency Vermont to partner with the project architect, engineers, and contractors to ensure the building’s design and equipment were as efficient as possible.
Each year, the efficiency measures installed in the building will save approximately $13,000 in energy costs compared to a standard new building built to code. Additionally, the building will save more than 31,000 gallons of water annually.
The building is sealed with a non-toxic, water-based technology that finds and seals all the small holes in the building shell. That measure reduces air leakage by 77 percent over the allowable leakage of a code-compliant building.
The town’s investment is already paying off. “For one thing, it stays a lot warmer in here,” Moore said. “In the wintertime, the old station was so cold, you couldn't work out of the bay.” The air sealing, combined with high levels of insulation, will prevent the building from freezing during a multi-day power outage.
Most of the building is heated with heat pumps. Along with LED lighting, heat recovery ventilation, ENERGY STAR appliances and a building energy management system, the new public safety headquarters uses very little energy. Moore said the town is pursuing a grant for solar panels, which will offset a portion of the building’s electric consumption and further reduce its carbon footprint.
Fortunately, downtown Wilmington was spared any damage in 2023 during Vermont’s multiple catastrophic floods. But as climate change increases the risk of flooding in our state, Moore and town officials are relieved to be prepared for the next major flood.
“Nobody likes to spend money, but voters approved the bond for the building,” Moore said. “Residents knew we needed it. They knew it was time.”
