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The 60% solution: Milton fire chief hopes new station finally gets the nod

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Milton Fire and Rescue Chief Nick Marique is hoping the retooled smaller stationhouse he's come up with will finally get a thumbs-up from 60 percent of Milton voters next Tuesday. (Lebanon Voice photo)

MILTON - Dogged for almost a decade by the slow drip of defeat in his bid to shepherd a new Milton Fire and Rescue building to fruition, Milton Fire and Rescue Chief Nick Marique is hoping voters next Tuesday will finally give their blessing to a trimmed-down project that has fewer bells and whistles but still serves the town's needs now.

Marique, sitting at a desk in the 64-year old dilapidated, mold-ridden structure the department now uses, is almost giddily optimistic about this year's vote, saying the outpouring of support by residents this year has been far and above previous years.

"I have a good gut feeling," the longtime Milton chief said Monday. "There's been more people coming out to support the project than any other year. In the past selectmen never have been involved to talk to residents, but Mike Beaulieu helped us make a video. And we've had barbecues, we've tried to outreach more, too."

Townspeople have voted in the majority a couple of times to fund the new fire station, but the vote requires a 60 percent approval. In 2013 the 60 percent was missed by a handful of voters. The next year, in 2014, not even a simple majority approved a $2.7 million dollar project price tag. Unsuccessful votes also occurred three years in a row from 2007-09.

This year with the ever-increasing cost of material and labor, a slightly scaled down version that reduced square footage by about 25 percent comes in at $2.8 million, but Marique notes that the cost is only going to go up and the donated two acres of land on which the fire station will sit goes back to the original owner by contract next year if no fire station is in the works.

"We risk not only losing getting that land for free, but the chance to get probably the only large flat piece of land on (Route) 125 that is suitable for a fire station," Marique said.

In short, Marique said the town is running out of options, time and space. He said if they spent all the money they wanted on trying to bring the current building they're using up to code (which it isn't now) and rehabbed it top to bottom, it's just not big enough to handle today's larger fire trucks and rescue apparatus.

"This building was built by volunteers with little add-ons through the years," he said. "It was never designed for what we need today."

The building's flaws have been well documented by The Lebanon Voice and many other newspapers, including cramped areas for mustering out for fires, mold and water drainage problems and lack of training and administrative space. Several years ago the department had to spend extra to retrofit a brand new fire engine to fit into the cramped quarters. For several years the building has been under a temporary occupancy permit which can be pulled at any time.

Marique acknowledges that even with the growing support of townspeople and new-station advocates, getting to the 60 percent approval threshold on March 8 will be a daunting task.

He believes there's a large block of voters who vote "no" on everything, so of the remaining voters who have an open mind, he may really have to get 75 percent of them.

With that in mind, he's asking those who realize the time has come to approve the new fire and rescue building, to do all they can to bring out the vote.

"People that support the fire station, we're asking them to talk to their neighbors, then make sure they vote," Marique said. "We have to offer rides, go door to door."

Selectmen unanimously support the proposed fire station, but the budget committee was split 7-2 in favor with Lue Snyder casting one of the dissenting votes, she said, because almost a million dollars in interest payments is glossed over in the warrant article.

"They're skimming over the part there where the interest cost would be $931,000 for the fire station," Snyder said today. "That is not in the warrant article. Voters think it's $2.8 million, it's really $3.7 million. People don't understand that."

Snyder said she also thought the fire station could be smaller, but added she's not saying the town's doesn't need it and is not saying people shouldn't vote for it.

"People need to know the information, in order to form a better opinion, you need to know all the facts," she said.

For his part, Marique is hoping the facts people will remember as they walk into the polls a week from today is that construction costs will only go up, the demand for quality fire and rescue protection will only go up, and two acres of prime, flat, buildable land assessed at $43,000 that the town can acquire for free will soon be out of reach.

To see a video tour of the current stationhouse and its shortcomings, click here.

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