Liora Engel
The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
(TNS)
HINSDALE — Voters will consider next month buying a piece of property on Plain Road for a new fire station.
A special town meeting to decide on spending $408,000 for the parcel at 59 Plain Road is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 7, at 9 a.m. at Hinsdale Town Hall.
Most of the money for the project would come from existing town funds, according to July 8 selectboard meeting minutes. Selectboard Chair Steve Diorio was not immediately available for an interview Saturday.
The town’s fire station at 13 Depot St. was constructed in 1953, with subsequent additions in 1971 and 1991, Fire Chief Terry Zavorotny said Saturday. The building is too small for the department’s equipment and vehicles, and the lot is crammed and has no room for other additions, he said.
“We do not have enough room for our equipment. We have to pull one truck out to get another vehicle to move another one out,” Zavorotny said.
In an emergency situation, that equipment shuffle could add almost three minutes to the all-volunteer department’s response time, said firefighter Taran Benedict.
“Two-and-a-half minutes, it could be somebody’s life,” Benedict added.
The lack of space isn’t the only problem with the town’s existing fire station. The Depot Street building has significant foundation issues, according to Zavorotny, who said the building has been sliding toward the nearby Ashuelot River.
The condition of the building has been a topic of discussion on and off for the past 20 years, Zavorotny said, but the structure’s foundation problems reached a critical point this year when a structural engineer said the building may become unsafe in the next few years.
“The time is now,” he said. “Well, the time was a while ago, but we’re trying to pursue it now.”
Zavorotny said he couldn’t estimate the cost of constructing a new station on Plain Road, as the fire department needs a site before they can work to secure grants for the project.
The 3.6-acre property is currently owned by a nonprofit, the Gerry Finesse Galiger Foundation, and was previously owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, according to property records.
The fire department is holding an open house for the public to tour the station on Depot Street on Wednesday, Sept. 4, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The proposed purchase would need to secure a simple majority vote to pass at the special meeting.
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