Voters approved $618,000 to fund design services to start the construction process of a new addition to the 50-year-old fire station, thegardnernews.com reported. The debt exclusion vote passed by a margin of 143-92, and as a result, the cost of the borrowing will be excluded from the calculations of the tax levy increase each year.
The tax bill for an average Winchendon house valued at $280,000 is expected to rise by $33.80 annually as a result of the approval, the report said.
Town officials plan to hire Schwartz/Silver Architects, Inc. for the architectural drawings of the new fire station addition. The estimated cost of the construction is $8.5 million, the report said.
The current fire station was built in 1977 with space for one full-time firefighter but the team has quadrupled in size throughout the years, the report said. The department needs three to four on-duty firefighters to provide ambulance and fire services for the community, but there isn’t enough space in the station for four firefighters to comfortably complete a shift.
The new station will have enough space for the staff to have a designated decontamination area. Another health improvement feature will be a diesel exhaust emission system that captures and vents out any diesel particles that would otherwise reduce the air quality for the staff, the report said.
There is not enough garage and storage space currently to keep all fire apparatus inside and operational. With the new fire station, all apparatus will be kept inside, which means all the trucks will remain in service year-round, a fire official said in the report.