Harpswell’s Fire and Rescue Planning Committee has unanimously endorsed a $6 million design for a proposed central emergency services facility on Mountain Road that supporters say would ensure the reliability of those services into the future.
At a joint meeting with the Harpswell Select Board on Thursday, Jan. 16, the committee voted 7-0 to recommend a wood-frame design with pre-engineered steel vehicle bays for the roughly 12,000-square-foot building. The estimated construction cost is $5,996,000.
Designer Port City Architecture had provided two alternatives: a fully wood-frame design with an estimated $6.6 million construction cost, and a fully pre-engineered design with an estimated $5.5 million construction cost.
Port City principal Andrew Hyland, who attended the meeting, advised the committee that a fully pre-engineered structure would be less durable and cost more to operate. He also said it could increase in price if incoming President Donald Trump imposes new tariffs on imported steel.
Previous estimates for the facility have ranged from $5.1 million to more than $7 million. Hyland said construction costs have increased dramatically since before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 but have since leveled off.
He added that Harpswell could apply for grants to reduce the town’s out-of-pocket costs by as much as $2 million. He said the facility would take about 18 months to build.
Harpswell has three independent, volunteer fire departments — the Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire Department, Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue, and the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department. The town employs a small staff of firefighters who supplement the volunteer workforce and split their time between the Harpswell Neck and Orr’s Island stations.
Harpswell plans to put the question of whether to build a central facility before voters at the next Town Meeting in March, despite resistance from leaders of the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department.
The town wants a municipal fire station to house its career firefighters and support the volunteer departments, but OBIFD has suggested it instead pay for improvements to the three existing fire stations and post municipal firefighters at each of those locations.
At a Select Board meeting immediately following the committee’s vote, the board heard a presentation from committee member Harvey Pough that focused on the potential impacts of both the central facility and OBIFD’s plan. Pough serves as rescue chief for Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue.
Pough said the new $6 million construction estimate is close to what OBIFD’s proposed facility improvements would likely cost, including about $4.2 million for a new Cundy’s Harbor fire station and $1.4 million to renovate the Harpswell Neck station.
However, Pough said the staffing costs for each plan would differ significantly. He estimated that staffing the central facility would cost about $350,000 per year, whereas staffing the three existing stations could cost as much as 3.5 times that amount.
He also noted that adding staff to the existing stations wouldn’t shorten response times to emergencies in North Harpswell, but a central station would.
Kathy Hirst, treasurer of the OBIFD board, said that Pough’s cost estimates assume the continued support of volunteer firefighters, who have become increasingly difficult to recruit and retain. OBIFD officials have said the town’s investment in a central station may discourage volunteerism.
But Ted Merriman, president of the OBIFD board and a member of the town’s Fire and Rescue Planning Committee, said that despite his ongoing questions and concerns about the central facility, he wouldn’t stand in the way of moving forward.
“Given that we’re talking about sending this design and this size and so forth to the Select Board, OBI does not want to get in the way of that,” Merriman said. “We see the writing on the wall that this municipal structure is coming in the future. We get it.”
