The Selectboard on Wednesday set the amount of an upcoming request to borrow money to build a proposed combined fire and police station off Main Street. The latest plan is a less costly version of a measure that twice failed at the polls in spring 2015.
Presented with cost estimates from their architect, Montpelier's Jay White, board members voted, 4-1, to move forward with a design that they estimated would cost no more than $1.41 million to build.
As town leaders in past years split into factions over issues of cost versus long-term investment, the projected outlay fell, bit by bit, from as high as $7 million in some estimates to $3 million in two unsuccessful bond votes last year.
The debate continued, to a smaller extent, on Wednesday as board members weighed whether to adopt another cost-saving suggestion of White's: remove several parking spaces from the proposed facility's lot.
The architect recommended the reduction in order to avoid having to spend extra money -- about $100,000 -- on pervious pavement, which he said a larger lot likely would need in order to secure a stormwater permit from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
This request from the Selectboard would pay for a combined police and fire station off Main Street with a rough gross square footage of 5,900.