The Kennebec Journal

March 22

Whitefield OKs new fire station

By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

WHITEFIELD -- After a two-hour debate, residents at their annual town meeting on Saturday agreed to build a new fire station next to the Town Office on the Townhouse Road to serve all three fire associations in town.

Earlier in the day at the polls they also said yes to creating a municipal volunteer fire and rescue department.

The cost of the central fire station is not to exceed $548,144 and be paid over 30 years on a government loan with a 4 percent interest rate.

The building would serve the North Whitefield Fire Department, Coopers Mills Volunteer Fire Department and the Kings Mills Fire Department. The stations at Coopers Mills and Kings Mills will become satellite stations, according to Selectman Susan McKeen.

"You have to make capital improvements," McKeen said Sunday. "Towns can't stand still. Even through bad budgetary times you have to grow."

She said officials have had a vision for a town center that included a fire station on property the town purchased five or six years ago. The land is adjacent the Town Office, she said. Voters turned down a proposal to build a new Town Office last year.

"To have at least this part of the vision come to fruition is a wonderful thing for the town," she said. "

Tim Pellerin, chief of the North Whitefield Fire Department, said the new fire station will be a place for the fire associations to conduct meetings and trainings. And records from all three associations would be kept there, he said.

"The fire station was very controversial," she said. "There was a lot of very good discussion about the station and some compelling arguments. That's why town meetings work."

At the polls on Saturday, voters also created the Whitefield Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department Ordinance and authorized selectmen to accept ownership of the assets of the volunteer fire associations and or lease them "under such terms as the selectmen consider to be in hte best interests of the town."

McKeen said the North Whitefield Fire Department, Coopers Mills Volunteer Fire Department and Kings Mills Fire Department will become the Whitefield Volunteer Municipal Fire Department. Voters on Saturday also enacted a Cemetery Ordinance by secret ballot.

She said about 140 people turned out for the five and a half hour afternoon meeting at the Whitefield Elementary School. She said there was a big debate over charitable requests by organizations.

"Something kind of interesting is at the end of the meeting all the charitable giving articles were restored by at lease 50 percent," she said. "Selectmen had voted zero dollars on all the charitable giving articles. We felt townspeople should go through those and vote on what they want to give."

She said the food bank asked for $1,000 and residents upped that to $3,000. Spectrum Generations requested $958, but voters decided to cut that almost in half.

She said residents did agree to pay $1,500 for a new community sign at the school. The sign can be used by anyone in the community, she said to let people know what's going on.

The sign will replace a changeable letter sign that has been there since 1988.

"It's one of the primary sources of communication outside the newspapers," she said. "Most people drive by that sign every day. It's exciting. I'm hopeful somebody takes up the project and does a fundraiser to build a base for the sign to make it look really nice. We didn't raise enough money for that."

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com