Five acres of land off of Brown Street will allow officers to train on structural fires and learn more about the behavior of fires. The city is in the process of coming to a five year agreement to get this site up and operating. Both the department and the community will benefit from this new training site.

What's described as "substantial completion" of the fire station - the point at which fire department personnel may begin the moving process and using it - was originally to be Nov. 1 but because of weather, Petrowski said that's been extended to Friday, Nov. 3. 

He said a walk-through of the facility was conducted for members of the fire department Monday. 

Petrowski said with all the things that need to be done as of today, the move will begin the week of Nov. 6. 

"We're going to take that week to get all our stuff done," he said. "Get our lockers put in there, get our furniture in there and do the things we need to do."

Fire Chief Peter Shedd, who’s also chairman of the Fire Station Expansion Committee, said the meeting didn’t go as the committee hoped, with a vote of 165-to-31 against the proposed $585,000 land purchase and a 79-to-77 vote to pass over Article 2, which proposed spending more than $2 million on a new station’s construction.

“Right now, half the committee wants to resign,” he said on Thursday. “A lot of time and effort went into this.”

Over the past year, the committee met often, sometimes weekly, to consider different properties and building plans, meeting with architects from Stevens & Associates and outlining a presentation for special town meeting. Given the vote, Shedd said the committee plans to take time off and reconvene after the holidays.

“At this point, I think we’re better off letting things lie, letting the committee think about it a little bit,” he said. “I think most of the committee members are just willing to take time off.”