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.”

The cost of the new Moville ambulance, a 2017 Chevrolet Arrow C4500, is $135,000, and will arrive by January. It is not a remotely a situation of the current one being a clunker about to fall apart,  said Moville Ambulance official Jeff Crick, who has done a lot of maintenance work on the existing ambulance.

The current Moville ambulance is about seven years old and approaching 30,000 miles. Crick said the time is right for a new one, since trading at the right time is imperative, before the existing unit gets too beaten up and the value falls below the $65,000 in which he anticipates selling it.