WOODSTOCK — Town Manager Vern Maxfield told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday that the town’s insurance company recommended installing a firewall in the Maine Department of Transportation garage the town is seeking to purchase.

Residents will vote whether to buy the 40- by 80-foot building for $65,000 to store extra vehicles and possibly house two PACE ambulance employees who provide 24-hour coverage to Woodstock.

At the beginning of 2015, Lorrinda Connelly and Norm Haggan of the MDOT offered the garage to the town for $125,000. The building hasn’t been used since the state built another one on Main Street in Dixfield 10 years ago.

The old garage is at 366 Route 232.

The MDOT later put the garage on the market for $150,000, Maxfield said. The board made a counteroffer of $90,000.

MDOT responded with a counteroffer of $120,000 and the board voted against pursuing the purchase.

Maxfield told selectmen later that the MDOT decided to offer the building to the town for $65,000, with the condition that it be used for transportation purposes.

Maxfield said he invited Bethel mason Chuck Haines to look at the garage to see what it would cost for a block wall or firewall to be installed.

“He told me that we’d have to check with our insurance company to see what their requirements are for firewalls,” Maxfield said.

He told the board that the insurance company “said we have to build the firewall all the way to the roofline.”

“I went back to Chuck with that information, and he said he could build a six-inch concrete block wall, fill it with a fire suppressant, and it would be all we would ever need for a firewall,” he said.

Fire Chief Kyle Hopps said he was concerned the firewall would be in the way of the running overhead garage doors, but Maxfield said Haines could work around it.

Maxfield said the firewall would be installed on the left side of the garage, between the office space and the rest of the building.

In other business, Maxfield said the board would consider new town policies suggested by the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition at its next meeting. They would include an updated tobacco policy, a breast-feeding policy and an electronic cigarette policy.

Maxfield said Woodstock has a tobacco policy and that the board voted to move ahead with the electronic cigarette policy.

“At our next meeting, I’ll present them with the rest of the information I got from the RVHCC, and they’ll make a decision from there,” Maxfield said.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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