NEW SHARON — Residents will be asked to consider buying 3.38 acres to build a new fire station on Route 2 at the annual town meeting on Saturday, March 5.

Voters will also decide if they want to have the town treasurer and road commissioner appointed in future years or stay with the election-from-the-floor method.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the Cape Cod Hill School.

Positions up for election are a three-year selectman’s term, a one-year road commissioner term, and a one-year term for town clerk and tax collector.

Incumbents are Selectman Russell Gardner and Road Commissioner Kevin Brann, Town Clerk and Tax Collector Rose Mary Eller.

Nominations for the positions will be accepted during the meeting.

Articles 11 and 12 of the town warrant deal with the fire station.

Voters are being asked to authorize selectmen, on behalf of the town, to negotiate the purchase of 3.38 acres from David Ames for a future fire station building site, select board Chairman Maynard Webster said Monday.

If approved, the funds would be drawn from the fire station reserve fund, for a price not to exceed $50,000, he said. The proposed parcel of land is located across from the former site of the New Sharon library, Webster said.

Voters rejected an offer of a smaller piece of land from Ames a few years ago.

Currently the fire station is located on Main Street and there is only one way to get access to Route 2 from the station. The state previously closed two bridges, one on each end of the street, due to safety issues.

Residents are also being asked to authorize the board to spend the fire station reserve fund, which has a current balance of $138,000 and to borrow up to an estimated $1.062 million to be spent on a new station.

For a 20-year note at 4 percent, the total projected interest and principal would be $1,544,523, according to the warrant. The annual payment would be an estimated $77,226.12, which would cause a tax increase of about 79 cents per $1,000 of property valuation based on the 2010 town total value, Webster said.

Article 13 asks voters if they want to change the position of treasurer from an elected position to an appointed position, effective at the March 2012 town meeting.

Article 14 asks the same question in connection to the road commissioner going from an elected position to an appointed position.

Residents will also decide whether they want selectmen to accept a gift of between one-half acre and 1 acre on the Chandler Road, off Cape Cod Hill Road, from the Rose Realty Trust, Webster said.

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