VAN BUREN, Maine — Contractors will soon break ground on a new fire station in Van Buren, replacing the town’s old facility which was built in 1972 as an add-on to a former municipal building.
The contractor A.M. Construction & Roofing, based in Caribou, came in with the lowest bid of $3.7 million. Van Buren Town Manager Luke Dyer said that the contractor will have to turn the building over to the town 400 days after officially starting the project. Dyer said the lead contractor is waiting on the availability of a subcontractor, after which the project will officially begin, and the 400-day clock starts.
A precise start day has not yet been set, but Dyer said work is expected to begin within the next two weeks.
The town also received roughly $2.2 million in federal funding for the project. Dyer first applied for the funding about three years ago when he was the town’s deputy manager. Initial estimates for the project’s cost were roughly $2.8 million at this time, but since then construction costs have increased, particularly the price of steel.
“It has just skyrocketed,” he said of steel prices. “It is a steel building, and because of the span of the building it can’t be done with wood trusses. It’s got to be done with steel.”
Dyer said the town will continue to seek out grant opportunities to further close the funding gap. The town will take out a pre-construction loan and look for additional funding opportunities while the loan is active and then use a bond to cover the difference.
The town will finish paying off the bond bank on another municipal building in 2026, or at roughly the same time it would need to take out the bond for the new fire station. Because of this, Dyer said the taxpayers will not see a noticeable increase due to the project.
The new fire station will be 105 by 120 feet and include four truck bays, an office area, conference room, storage and mechanical areas, and a kitchen. It will also be used to provide in-house training to other firefighters, which Dyer decided to implement after learning that Brunswick’s police department was holding similar in-house training.
Money made from these training sessions will generate additional revenue for the department.
The new station will be located on State Street, close to where it intersects with Main Street. The town purchased two adjacent lots of land for $30,000 on which the new station will be located. There is not a number address for the new facility yet, but Dyer said it is where the town’s former bowling alley was once located.
Information about the acreage of these lots was not immediately available, but Dyer said the land would provide ample parking space and routine operations without blocking the road or becoming difficult to manage in the winter months.
Dyer said the community is generally supportive of the project.
“They understand the circumstances,” he said. “Nobody wants to take on a new debt, but we’re never going to get $2.188 million again to build this fire station. It’s not going to happen,” he said. “This is an opportunity that we cannot pass by.”
