LIVERMORE FALLS — The town’s Fire Substation Committee is looking for land options to build a one-bay station within 1 mile of the intersection of Routes 133 and 106 in the East Livermore area.
The town property at the intersection is too small and has land title complications, Fire Chief Edward Hastings IV said Monday. The town foreclosed on the parcel for back taxes but to get financing on it to build a station, the town has to wait five years, he said.
Voters approved building the substation for one firetruck in November by a vote of 992-399 and authorized selectmen to spend up to $400,000 over 20 years. The vote also authorizes selectmen to enter into a lease/purchase or finance agreement for up to 20 years, with payments from taxes not to exceed $20,000 per year.
On Feb. 16, selectmen approved spending $21,000 to hire Plymouth Engineering Inc. of Newport for engineering services. The money will come out of the Fire Department budget until the town gets a loan, Hastings said. The department would then be reimbursed, he said.
Plymouth Engineering reviewed the town site and the preliminary idea of putting a 28- by 48-foot building on it, along with turning radius at the access points.
“I know that we want to keep this as small as possible, but this site is a little too tight to safely say with a straight face that you guys can put firetrucks in an out of this building,” Keith Ewing of Plymouth Engineering wrote in a letter to Hastings on Jan. 21. He asked Hastings, if there were any potential sites bigger than this one or the potential of buying a stretch of land to make the site wider.
A preliminary cost estimate for a 1,400-square-foot building is about $224,000, Ewing wrote. That would not factor in the cost of land or a well, Hastings said. The committee is also exploring the possibility of a longer building to allow for any instance when the town’s ladder truck would need to temporarily housed, he said.
The preliminary scope of work for this project would include a design, a grading plan, a site plan, layout of site coordinating with the utilities and installing a septic field.
According to the request for land proposals, all options would need to be within 1 mile of the intersection. The lot size should be a minimum of 125 feet by 250 feet with direct access to a publicly maintained road. Larger parcels could be considered, though an option to subdivide a piece of land would also be viable, providing town ordinances allow it to be done. The lot would need to be at least three-quarters of an acre, Hastings said.
The request for land proposals can be seen on the Fire Department’s Facebook page and at the Town Office and is expected to be posted on a sign in East Livermore.
All proposals must be submitted in writing and to include associated costs and disclosure of all deed restrictions. Proposals will be accepted until a suitable location is found, Hastings said.
Proposals can be sent to the Livermore Falls Town Office, Attention: Substation Committee, 2 Main St., Livermore Falls, ME 04254. If anyone has questions, they can call the station at 207-897-6681.
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