By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

Saco will soon have a new central fire station that fire officials say will better serve the needs of the community.

Residents voted 2,864 to 503 to support building a fire station on city-owned land on North Street. City Clerk Lucette Pellerin said 2,025 residents voted by absentee ballot before Tuesday’s election. Overall turnout for the special election was “excellent,” she said.

Fire Chief Alden Murphy waited in the hall of the Community Center for the vote totals, surrounded by firefighters and supporters. As ballot return slips were taped to the wall, they kept a running tab of votes on slips of paper and congratulated each other when the final tally was announced.

“Obviously we’d like to thank all the voters who came out today with their overwhelming support,” Murphy said.

Murphy also credited Friends of the Saco Fire Department with helping gain support for the referendum. He said the city will now focus on securing financing and should be ready to break ground this spring.

“We’re moving forward starting tomorrow morning,” he said.

Deputy Fire Chiefs Ed Dube and John Duross said they are thankful for support of the community and look forward to moving into a state-of-the-art fire station.

“It’s been a long time coming. They kept saying 10 more years, 10 more years,” Dube said. “This is the time to do it. The old station is dying.”

Voters were asked to decide if they favored spending $5.9 million to build the new station. The project will be funded with revenue from the ambulance billing account and debt retirement, resulting in no tax increases, according to city staff.

Fire officials said the useful life of the 1938 Central Fire Station is over. City officials have discussed replacing the aging brick building since the 1970s and purchased the 7-acre North Street lot in 1998. The land is next to General Dynamics and across the street from Young School.

The fire station on Thornton Avenue presents a number of problems for staff who must work in cramped spaces with little storage, according to fire officials. Murphy said manufacturers must alter trucks to lower their ladders and bring in mirrors to fit through the station’s bay doors.

Murphy said exhaust rises into the living quarters above the bays and there are no separate bathroom facilities for female employees. Broken asbestos floor tiles have been patched with automobile Bondo and water leaks into the building whenever it rains, he said.

The new 21,660-square-foot fire station on North Street will include a single-story, 8,260-square-foot area with five bay doors for trucks and a two-story, 13,400-square-foot area for administration and staff living quarters.

Murphy said the new location is closer to the geographic center of the city and will reduce response times to remote areas. The building also will meet all Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, be better suited for current technology and include “green” elements such as natural light, solar hot water and geothermal heat, he said.

City Finance Director Beth Cote last month said the city will secure a $5.999 million bond at a time when borrowing costs are low. At a fixed interest rate of 4 percent, the total cost of the project will be $10.4 million.

Bond payments will be covered by the ambulance billing account, which is comprised of revenue from rescue calls. The fund has averaged $500,000 in past years and is expected to grow above $600,000 annually moving forward, Cote said.

Typically a portion of the ambulance billing account is transferred to the city’s general fund to cover operating budgets. Last year $300,000 was transferred to the general fund and remaining money is typically used to buy new equipment.

The city has invested $70,000 in preliminary design and groundwork for the project. Murphy said all permits are in place and construction will begin when funding is secured.

City Councilor Arthur Tardif, who publicly opposed the plan because of its cost and location, also waited to hear the election results. He said he thought the voter turnout was great but wished more residents took part in the election.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.