Proposed Fire Station Heads to Vote in Saco

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Voters in Saco will decide next week whether it's time to replace the city's 72-year-old fire station, which can't accommodate firetrucks unless their side-view mirrors are reconfigured.

The city will hold a special election Tuesday to ask if voters want to spend $5,999,000 for a new fire station on North Street to replace the central station downtown.

City officials say borrowed money would be paid back with rescue funds. The city recently added a second ambulance and is collecting $600,000 a year for rescue runs. Half of that money would go into the city's general fund and the other half will go toward the bond for the new station, if voters approve it.

With other city debt being retired this year, officials said the cost of the new bond wouldn't require a tax increase - although taxpayers wouldn't see the slight decrease they would get if the bonds were retired and no additional bonds were sold.

Fire Chief Alden Murphy said the central station has a long list of deficiencies. He said firetrucks' side mirrors have to be "clipped" so the trucks can fit into bays. Trucks from out of town that cover the station while Saco firefighters are involved with major blazes can't pull into the bays.

"Even with the clipped mirrors, we only have a couple of inches on each side," he said.

Among other problems, the fire station has an open stairway to firefighters' living quarters on the second floor, meaning exhaust fumes can waft upstairs, Murphy said. Also, more room is needed to store hazardous materials, and computers sit on the parking bay floors. And a compressor for filling airpacks had to be wired to shut off when the diesel generator a few feet away kicks in, so the generator's exhaust won't be sucked into the breathing units, Murphy said.

"As we expand to meet the needs of the citizens, the station gets smaller and smaller," Murphy said. "We've maximized the useful life of the building."

Murphy said the site for the new station would make it easier for firefighters to get to fires.

The central station is on Thornton Street, downtown between Route 1 and Main Street. That means it's not unusual for firetrucks to be slowed by traffic while responding to calls, he said.

The site for the proposed station is about a mile away on North Street, he said, a location that would let firefighters avoid downtown traffic unless a call comes from there.

Mayor Ronald L. Michaud, who supports the new station, said it's a difficult time to ask voters for another bond, but he noted that bond interest rates are very low.

He said the bond package assumes a rate of 4 percent, but there are signs that it could go for 3.5 percent, which would save taxpayers $500,000 over the life of the bond.

He also said construction costs are down, with contractors scrambling for work, so a poor economy may actually be good for a major construction project.

"It's very attractive," Michaud said of the current financing market. "If we sit by too long, it's going to cost us more."

Michaud said he knows of no organized opposition to the bond measure, although some residents have indicated they think it's the wrong time to be borrowing and spending.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

Originally published by By EDWARD D. MURPHY Staff Writer.

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