By Ellie Fellers,Special to the Sun Journal

NEW GLOUCESTER – Selectmen on Monday agreed to send out bid specifications for preliminary engineering studies for a new fire station.

Residents voted 41-10 last month to spend $168,000 for 25 acres on Route 100 for a new fire station and other municipal uses. The purchase agreement between Chandler Brothers, a family-owned land and timber harvesting company, and the town requires three annual payments of $56,000 each.

At the meeting, voters also authorized selectmen to spend up to $25,000 from the Fire Station Capital Reserve Account for engineering and architectural services for the station that will be built across from Pine Tree Seeds Co.

Preliminary projected needs for the station include 20,000 square feet with a lobby, decontamination laundry room and shower, meeting and training room of 2,400 square feet with a vertical hose drying area. A workshop and fire storage area and secure storage for compressed air and self-contained breathing apparatus is planned. Handicap accessible bathrooms, four separate showers and changing rooms with lockers, fire officials’ offices with a conference room are also planned. A large kitchen and exercise room and overnight quarters are also included.

Outdoors, a large parking lot with traffic control will be planned. And, between 6 and 10 acres of land will be dedicated for outdoor training, smoke trailer, hose test area and car fire/extrication training area.

The new central fire station will replace the Lower Gloucester Fire Station and storage space at the town’s highway garage at Upper Gloucester.

In other business, selectmen agreed to join an effort by Cumberland County government and the Greater Portland Council of Governments to empower communities to decide how and where federal community development dollars will be spent. The grants help communities create jobs, build public infrastructure, rehabilitate or build affordable housing or help residents who have low or moderate incomes.

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