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.