MINOT — Voters at town meeting Saturday passed a budget that calls for raising $42,000 less in taxes than was raised by last year’s budget.

As the meeting drew to a close, Selectman Eda Tripp announced the total to be raised stood at about $1.24 million — the second year in a row with a marked reduction in spending for the municipal side of the budget.

One of the victims of the meeting’s fiscal restraint was the plan to build an addition to the town’s Central Fire Station.

Fire Chief Dean Campbell noted that today’s low interest rates and many contractors looking for work made this the right time to build.

Selectman Steve French, a former fire chief, announced that he was 100 percent behind the addition, which was absolutely needed. The package, as presented, was a no-frills answer to the department’s needs, he said.

He added, “If we could only find a way to fund it without feeling the pinch.”

French suggested the town might wait until 2015, after it makes its last $49,000 payment on a Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. loan.

“Sounds to me like your heart is in one place and your wallet is in another,” moderator John Giesmar quipped.

French acknowledged such might be the case, but the fact was that the addition’s annual cost, financed over 10 years, would have been just about $50,000.

The addition, which would have about doubled the station’s square footage, carried an estimated $432,000 price tag.

Having said no to the addition, townspeople voted to have the matter “restudied” and brought back another year.

Voters approved replacing Engine 1 — a 1982 International that officials said couldn’t be made compliant with today’s codes — with a smaller truck that could be housed in the West Minot Station.

The new, $150,000 truck will be financed over four years, at about $39,000 per year.

Voters also approved Town Administrator Arlan Saunders’ plan to trade the Highway Department’s 2007 GMC for a new, much more fuel-efficient model. Saunders said he could make the swap with a trade-in, plus $10,492 from the highway reserve for a vehicle that would save the town $8,000 in fuel costs over the next five years.

The highway paving and maintenance accounts were funded at $183,000 and $184,300 respectively, with Jackass Annie Road targeted for a major overhaul and a plan for the road crew to spend a fair amount of time replacing the Indian Brook culvert on Shaw Hill Road.

Voters rejected a $7,300 request to fix ball field infields but allowed that money in the recreation account could be used. Candace Gilpatric said the money might be used for some portable bleachers and dugout benches, but she was unsure about the infields.

Voter Registrar Hester Gilpatric reported that 111 registered voters attended, “despite the miserable weather.” A year ago, 77 attended.