TOPSHAM — The old fire station on Green Street could be leveled this weekend after a unanimous vote July 19 by the Board of Selectmen.

Copp Excavating will demolish the fire station at a cost of about $19,000. Public Works Director Dennis Cox recommended the Durham company, which submitted the lowest of five bids for the job.

Demolition could begin this weekend, Town Manager Rich Roedner said Tuesday.

Although the town’s Public Works Department was originally expected to do the work, the cost could have reached nearly $22,000, including excavator rental and disposal of construction debris and concrete, Cox reported in a July 10 memo to Roedner.

Along with safely tearing down the building, Copp’s work includes hauling off debris and paying for its disposal. The foundation will not be removed, but all materials down to the cement floor will be taken out.

The town occupied the Green Street building — used in recent years for storage — at least back to the 1950s, Roedner said earlier this month. Topsham’s Fire and Rescue Department vacated the building in 2007, when the government campus at 100 Main St. opened.

The town budgeted $15,000 in fiscal year 2018 to demolish the station, along with $180,000 to erect a new storage building near the Public Works Department. The storage building is in the permitting process and should be complete by winter, according to Roedner.

Of the $15,000, the town spent more than $1,300 for asbestos abatement and about $6,500 for asbestos removal, leaving more than $7,100, Cox said. The remaining $12,000 to cover Copp’s bid will come from money set aside in the town’s economic development fund, which the board has authorization to spend, Roedner said July 19.

A use for the property once the building is gone has yet to be determined.

Topsham’s former fire station on Green Street could be demolished as soon as this weekend. (Forecaster file photo)

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