As approved, the bond would pay for the demolition of the aging police station and the merging of emergency services into one downtown facility of about 5,900 gross square feet.

Town officials estimate that the town portion of residents' property tax rates will increase during the first year of bonding (2019) by less than a penny (.07 cents) per $100 of assessed valuation. That equates to $28.28 on a $400,000 house.

Standing outside the polls on Tuesday evening, Paul Tuhus said he had voted in favor of the bond because improvements for the town's emergency services facilities were long past due.

As it stands, officials and residents in Norwich have been discussing the project for the better part of this century -- since before Robinson joined the department in 2002.

"I think the public is happy because the budget has come down," Selectboard Chairwoman Linda Cook said, referring to the cost of the project. "This has brought the community together to help the two departments be more professional in the look of their buildings."

GARY ALLEN - A lease being negotiated by the city of Dundee would have a Verizon cell tower located on city property next to the Dundee Fire Department.

"Currently Verizon is in need of this tower due to capacity issues," she wrote. "What that means, is that there is an overload of people using their phones in the area and the existing cell towers nearby can no longer keep up with the demand of calls coming in, which leads to dropped calls and slow data usage."

Some of the call volume would be shifted away from the existing tower and transferred to the new one.

"You will find this happening more often as cities and towns grow," Dockter wrote. "You cannot simply continue to update an existing tower after time. You do need to eventually build new ones to accom­modate the increased usage."

In the case of the fire station, built in 1920, the money will be used to address problems of narrow garage bays, an aging garage floor that cannot support the weight of today's firetrucks, and expanded emergency medical services. The station's problems would be addressed by an expansion of the old brick station toward Gage Street, which officials said could mean that short section of Gage Street may need to be discontinued.

When it comes to street work funded by the proposed bond, city officials have targeted Commercial Street and Cross Hill Road with $120,000 of it funding sidewalk repairs and $650,000 of the bond paying for paving on multiple streets throughout the city.

Like the $6 million for the fire station expansion, the $1.3 million would be paid back with TIF funds and thus have no direct impact on the property tax rate.

The city unsuccessfully applied for the grant in 2015.

Its current heavy rescue truck "was designed for an era gone by," Fire Chief Jonathan Westendorf said. Parts for the vehicle are no longer available to make needed repairs, he added.

Westendorf told council that replacing the heavy rescue truck with a combination fire and rescue vehicle "will more closely match the modern needs of a combined fire and EMS operation."

He estimated cost for such a truck at about $600,000.

Also included in that grant application are funding requests for a third power cot and loader ($40,000) and a chest compressor ($13,148) for the city's third ambulance. The chest compressor is a device used to perform cardiovascular pulmonary resuscitation on a patient.

"We've found positive patient outcomes and it has worked well to help the organization as it allows another person to perform other tasks," he said.

The grant application of $620,490 seeks 95 percent of the total cost of $653,148 for the new fire truck and other equipment.

O'Conor said a group of department staff performed an in-depth comparison of custom fire apparatus in order to evaluate which manufacturer's product would best meet the fire protection needs of the citizens of Peachtree City.

"The Sutphen engine was deemed superior by a majority of committee members in all categories evaluated when compared to products from Pierce, Fierra, Rosenbaur, E-One and Crimson," O'Conor said. "The categories evaluated included handling, cab entry and hose-loading height, strength of chassis and quality of workmanship."

The 2017 Public Improvement Program budgeted $660,000 for this replacement apparatus, this engine is $73,350 below the budgeted amount. While some additional equipment purchases will be necessary to put this vehicle into service, the overall cost should be substantially below what was budgeted.

O'Conor said Public Works Department maintenance personnel, who will ultimately work on the vehicle, found the Sutphen superior to others evaluated and were impressed by the quality of construction and access to a fleet of six qualified maintenance technicians, each with a stockpile of parts available in the Atlanta metro area to address any warranty issues.