Mayor James J. Fiorentini > Press Release

Mayor Announces Bradford Fire Station Will Remain Open At least through mid- June

Mayor James J. Fiorentini today announced that the Bradford Fire Station will remain open at least through mid-June of this year and probably at least through the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The Mayor said it was too early to know if the station would be open the next fiscal year starting July 1.

Last week, the Mayor and Fire Chief Richard Borden announced that there was an unused grant of $84,000 from Maritimes and Northeast to provide firefighter training. The grant was given to the city several years ago in conjunction with a new gas pipe line being located within the city.

Today, the Mayor said he had been in touch with Maritimes and Northeast, the gas pipeline company. They have given the city permission to use the grant money to keep the Bradford Fire Station open.

Mayor Fiorentini said the money from the grant will allow the station to be open at least until Mid-June, and probably until the end of the fiscal year June 30.

The Mayor said the status next fiscal year was too early to determine, and would have to wait until next years budget was completed in about a month.

“I am happy to announce today that the city of Haverhill will be able to keep the Bradford Fire Station open at last until mid-June. This is good news for the city and for the people of Bradford.

This good news was made possible by the Fire Chief digging through his budget and his records, and coming up with an innovative way to keep the station open.

I also want to thank Maritimes and Northeast for allowing us to reuse this grant for a different purpose: to keep the fire station open. Although we all understand this was not the original intent of the grant, we all understand that this is our need today.

It is too early to tell how if this will continue until next year. We know we continue to face enormous financial difficulties as this world wide recession has caused State aid cutbacks and financial problems for every city in the State. We look forward to continuing to work with all parties in an effort to keep the station open next year also.

In the meantime, we are committed to applying as quickly as possible for stimulus money that would allow us to keep the station open for some time to come. We know this will be difficult, since communities all throughout the country have been forced to cut fire fighters and police. However, we are going to do what we can to obtain these funds.”