General
Why move the Fire Station?
There are several reasons but, in a nutshell, it is because 1) the existing station is barely adequate for our current needs and will almost certainly need to be replaced in the near future and 2) the opportunity to acquire the GSA Hickley House dorm building provides the town with the opportunity to save $2.5-3.0 million compared to relocating the station to a “greenfield” site.
There are dedicated pages describing the various considerations regarding the existing fire station and the proposed new location, and other elements of the rationale are developed elsewhere on this website.
Where can I find a copy of the Purchase & Sale Agreement?
Here. Follow these links to the June 25, 2025 Purchase and Sale Agreement and to an Extension Addendum delaying certain deadlines in the agreement.
There are a lot of rumors about this project? Are these true?
The existing dorm building is inappropriate for a fire station–right?
Wrong! In fact, the 2016 renovation of the dorm provided an excellent base for a public/commercial building such as the proposed Public Safety building. Over 40% of a “greenfield” facility is dedicated to training rooms, bunks/sleeping quarters, break areas, office space, and storage–and that is the most expensive part to build. The existing dorm building would provide all of those spaces, in almost exactly the right sizes and configurations. This is a major reason that the economics of this particular property are so compelling.
Departure from the property onto “very busy” Tenney Hill is dangerous–right?
Wrong! Before making an offer on the property, the Town consulted with both our MaineDOT regional traffic engineer and the in-house traffic engineer at our civil engineering advisors.
They have indicated that the amount of traffic on Tenney Hill, and the sight lines for vehicles exiting the property are both acceptable for the Public Safety building use. (They did note that it may be necessary to restrict some parking immediately adjacent to the driveway entrance.)
In the event that any issues were to arise in the future, the most common mitigation would be signage, perhaps with on-demand flashing lights, to alert traffic to exiting emergency vehicles.
As an aside, fire trucks exiting the current fire station already enter Main Street at a far more complex, and probably dangerous, intersection.
There are much better and less expensive locations available–right?
Wrong! As described in the New Sites Considered page, the Exploration Committee first took a hard look at the property the Town owns on South Street and another property for sale on Beech Hill Road, and approached several other property owners.
None of these properties were deemed suitable, for a combination of location, topography, or cost reasons.
Is the Town going to build affordable housing on the property? Why would the Town compete with private developers?
There are no plans for the Town itself to build affordable housing on the site. However, there will likely be a portion of the parcel that would not be required for the Public Safety facility and might be suitable for housing development. The future use of any excess land would be determined only after the Town’s needs are more fully known and any such use would be subject to public comment and, very likely, a Town Meeting vote. The Unused Land page describes how the Select Board (and the Town) might move forward to consider these important decisions.
Why doesn’t the Town just continue to purchase custom (low-clearance) fire trucks or modify the existing building? That would cost a lot less than buying this property and building a new station.
It is true that, if the equipment bay door heights were the only consideration, the Town could continue to buy custom equipment at much lower cost. But there are numerous other factors driving the plan to relocate the station, as described in the Current Fire Station page and elsewhere throughout this web site.
Financing/Cost
How much is this going to cost?
The engineers hired to evaluate a potential move estimate that the new Public Safety bulding will cost about $5 million. Together with the proposed purchase of the property from GSA (and attributing no value to the BHCS school land), the total would be roughly $6.9 million. This is about $2.5-3.0 million less than a “greenfield” build of a similar facility. More detail on the costs and how the project might be financed is provided on the Projected Cost and Financing page.
Is Peninsula Ambulance Corps going to help pay for the facility?
PAC will have a lease for its space in the new building. In addition, PAC will be assisting with grant funding applications for the new complex. PAC will join the town and fire department in grant applications and will be applying for their own grants if possible.
What will this do to my property taxes?
Unfortunately, there are too many variables to consider before this can be answered–the amount of any grants received, the specific terms of the Peninsula Ambulance Corps lease, any cash received from disposing of unused land, etc. The bottom of the Projected Cost and Financing page provides some context for the potential property tax impacts.
Location
Why this location?
Mostly because the GSA Hinckley House dorm building can save the town a lot of money–$2.5-3.0 million versus a greenfield build. But it also is appropriately situated in the town, would not trigger a large change in residents’ homeowners insurance costs, and is viewed as being a safer exit point for our fire trucks and ambulances.
More detail on the considerations are described in the Proposed New Location and Projected Cost and Financing pages.
Why not South Street (or somewhere else)?
The Exploration Committee started its process by looking at the Town-owned parcel on South Street, then evaluated several other sites. All of these were determined to be unsuitable for a Public Safety building.
More details are available on the New Sites Considered page.
Design
Has the design been finalized? Who will decide what the building will look like?
The design has certainly not been finalized. As described in the Background page, the Town retained engineers and architects to help evaluate sites and develop a conceptual design for a relocated facility. But there is substantial more detail work to be done, and many of the aesthetic considerations are still open for discussion.
Assuming the Town does acquire the property, the Select Board anticipates convening a series of meetings at which the public will have an opportunity for input–keeping in mind that we also need to ensure that the building is suitable for the fire department and ambulance corps needs and that costs are under control.
Unused/Excess Property
Will the community garden stay in place?
For the time being, the Town has no plans to make any changes to the community garden at the site.
However, it is possible that the Town will decide to dispose of the unused portions of this large parcel and, depending on what decisions are made, the garden might be affected. There is more discussion of these considerations on the Unused Land page.
Can the excess Tenney Hill property be used for affordable or workforce housing?
It certainly seems possible. As discussed in the Unused Land page, there is substantial excess acreage on the parcel that the Town does not anticipate using for the Public Safety building. But no decisions have been made, nor are they likely to be made until construction is underway or even complete. There is more discussion of these considerations on the Unused Land page.
What’s going to happen to the existing fire station?
That is a future Town decision that could be several years ahead of us, since a relocation project is likely to take 2-3 years to complete. But there are several competing ideas for the space. There is more discussion of the associated process considerations on the Unused Land page.