BUCKFIELD — A split Board of Selectmen opted not to spend $18,000 in loan interest for items removed from the original Fire-Rescue Station project after learning of yet another problem Tuesday night with the roughly $1 million building.
Selectmen voted 2-1 to hold off on spending the money until the station, which is located on the grounds of the Municipal Building on Turner Street, is closer to completion. Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Martha Catevenis and Selectman Scott Violette voted for the resolution and Selectwoman Cheryl Coffman voted against it.
“I am looking at this building (as it’s) not done yet, and I don’t know if there are going to be any more issues that will soak up this money,” Catevenis said.
Town Manager Cindy Dunn explained after the meeting that she was able to invest the $1 million loan for the project with Norway Savings Bank into a savings account with a 3 percent interest rate until the first drawdown, resulting in an approximate $18,000 return for the town.
Catevenis said she heard a rumor that there was an issue with one of the doors and emergency vehicles would not be able to drive through the building as originally planned.
Dunn confirmed this, but said with the way the vehicles are parked in the reduced space, 98 percent of the calls wouldn’t allow for a vehicle to drive through the building, anyway.
Fire Chief Tim Brooks said that in 80 percent of the calls, vehicles would exit through the front doors; the remainder would go through the back.
“If they caught it way back when, why am I hearing it as a selectperson as a rumor in town?” Catevenis asked.
Dunn said that she, Brooks and rescue Chief Floyd “Chip” Richardson discovered the issue about a month ago.
“Basically, it was when the doors were put in when we caught it — now that they’re not plastic and you can see the whole side of it,” Brooks said.
“There have been quite a few things … that from the design part of it to our original meetings with the Building Committee (and) the architect to the actual construction plans … that we are now seeing, because it’s up, that have not been done the way we thought they were going to be,” Dunn said.
Other issues with the project include soil contamination on the site, concrete that was too thin and lacking its required wire meshing for the foundation, a no-show contractor and stolen wire. To keep the project within budget, some items inside the building were removed, along with cutting down pavement thickness for the employee parking area.
The project was approved by voters at the June 2013 town meeting.
Parts that town administration want to see reinstated, along the with the rest of the list, total $22,100. They include kitchen cabinets, appliances and countertops, countertops for three workstations, an air conditioning unit, air and electric drops, a vestibule wall, door and keypad locks, a heavy-duty ceiling fan for the truck bay, a chemical decontamination station with two months of chemicals, signage, striping and carpet runners.
Dunn said she sent out letters requesting donations for some of these items and heard back from Home Depot on Tuesday, which offered two types of grants for such a project.
“I am going to be hopping on that site tomorrow and applying specifically for the kitchen cabinets, the countertops and the kitchen appliances,” she said, estimating more than $7,000 would be knocked off the total if the town received the grants.
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