By Jason Schreiber
The Union Leader Correspondent
BRENTWOOD, N.H. — After three failed attempts to get a new fire station, Fire Chief Kevin Lemoine hopes this is the year.
“We’ll see,” Lemoine said yesterday. “I don’t know if we’ll be doing this again next year if it doesn’t happen.”
This is the fourth time that voters will consider a proposal to build a new station at the intersection of Routes 125 and 111A.
This year’s plan for a 13,944-square-foot station carries a price tag of $1,657,700, which is $37,300 less than last year’s proposal that was shot down by just three votes.
A hearing on the plan will be held tonight at 7 at the Brentwood Community Center.
Getting a new station approved is tough because it needs a two-thirds vote, or a 67 percent majority, to pass. Last year 212 voted for it, while 111 said no. The plan needed 215 favorable votes.
Lemoine said voters at town meeting on March 13 will face the same plan that was pitched last year, but it’s a little less expensive because the town expects to get a lower interest rate on the 20-year bond that would be used to finance the project.
Supporters have spent years fighting for a new building to replace the fire station on Crawley Falls Road.
Fire officials say space is tight in the current six-bay station, which was built in the 1940s and is owned by the Brentwood Firemen’s Association, though the town contributes funding for the department.
The current station was expanded in the 1960s and 1980s, but fire officials said it’s not big enough to meet the department’s needs.
Voters first rejected a $2.3 million fire station proposal in 2007.
A $2.15 million plan was defeated in 2008 and a third proposal, which was pared down to $1,695,000, was turned down last year.
Selectmen and the budget committee voted to support the new station, but some opponents have argued against the plan because of the building’s size and cost, saying it’s a hard sell in a poor economy.
Resident Lynn Austin spoke against the plan two years ago because she questioned the size, but voted for it last year. She’s on the fence this year.
“I see there are neighbors who are unemployed now and we have a large senior population on fixed incomes,” she said.
If the plan is rejected again, Lemoine said the department will likely have to consider fixing up the old station even though he insists that it’s not cost-effective.
“We’re in desperate need of a roof right now, which we don’t have money to do right now,” he said.
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