For Fire Chief Jason Farris, that can’t happen soon enough.

The current building has no bathroom, no water except from a hose in the floor and no ready access to the upper floor.

“We have to use a ladder to get up there,” he said Thursday. That’s because the stairs had to be removed a number of years ago to accommodate the increasing size of fire trucks.

This project, for which bids are due to the town by 5 p.m. Nov. 30, is just one of the projects the department has undertaken this fall. Plans are underway to replace the shingle roof at the main fire station with a metal roof. The department has picked up its new heavy response truck, which is replacing arefitted military surplus 1989 ambulance. That is prompting the sale of that vehicle, and bids on it will be accepted until 5 p.m. Nov. 9.

The largest of the three projects is the fire station, which is expected to cost about $300,000. Voters approved the project at Town Meeting in March, and approval of that article drew applause.

The plans for the building are nearly complete. It will be 48 feet by 48 feet, about the same size as the main fire station, and it will have three bays for two pumpers and a forestry truck and a second floor loft for storage and a place for a crew to sleep if they need to do so during a storm.

Earlier this year, Bernardston resident Frank “Bud” Foster donated a strip of land to the Fire Department to enable the expansion of the department’s facilities. Since then, residents voted to conduct a feasibility study on the station during a special town meeting in September, and a Fire Station Expansion Committee was formed to oversee the study’s findings.

The seven-member committee recommended by Fire Chief Peter Shedd includes Shedd himself, Dennis Shockro and Tim Snow of the Fire Department, Bernardston resident Sal Arnone, Jane Dutcher of the Finance Committee, local contractor Scott Digeorge, and Selectboard member Stanley Garland. The Selectboard approved all members, and the committee began meeting Oct. 4.

Shedd said he wanted to create a committee whose members have plenty of experience in the construction industry, like himself, Shockro, Snow and Digeorge. He also wanted to have a member of the Selectboard to “keep the chain of communication open” with town government.

During the Oct. 4 meeting, the committee met to hear from members of the Fire Department about what they’d like to see in a new station.

“Being able to work around the trucks is the major concern,” Shedd said.

The station, he said, is extremely overcrowded. It houses four vehicles, with no room for the department’s three equipment trailers, which are stored outside, and little office space.