MEXICO — Will Gatchell, senior associate and senior architect with Harriman, sketched out a timeline for a design and cost of a new fire station.

“We’re hustling to get to move the first step forward, which is the schematic design and getting that done will give us a more refined design as well as a clear budget of what the whole building will cost,” he told selectmen May 6. “Our plan over the next two weeks is to push to get that done, and then spend another week doing cost estimating. Then we can present that cost and the final design at the town meeting for your decision,” he said.

Gatchell said, “Fingers crossed, it’s OK and everybody’s OK with it, we would then move forward into the other design phases, which start in June, right after the town vote. Then we have a second phase, which is design development,” leading to the middle of July, “when we get a very detailed set of drawings completed, and an even more detailed cost estimate.”

He said then they would issue construction documents that would finish up in early October. The project would go out to bid to contractors in November.

The Select Board voted 5-0 on Dec. 3 to accept a $4.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant toward a new fire station.

The town suffered extensive damage in storm-related flooding in December 2023. Floodwaters inundated the fire station, damaging offices, meeting rooms, sleeping quarters and equipment. The new fire station will provide more effective and efficient services to area residents in future natural disasters.

Town Manager Raquel Welch-Day said the USDA grant has to be 75% of the project cost. That would mean a fire station project would have to be $6 million. She said the town would have to borrow $1.5 million.

Welch-Day said the town will be looking to borrow $1 million and take $500,000 from undesignated funds, which has to be approved by voters at the June 10 town meeting.

She said the town’s payment would be around $55,000 a year for 30 years. “I asked to shorten the time to 10 years but the bank’s advice is to borrow for 30 years and make extra payments as each budget year allows. There is no penalty to pay off early.

An important note, said Welch-Day is, “We are paying off a bond in November that currently costs the town $143,669 a year. Given this payoff, the new fire station will not raise your taxes.”

At the 2021 annual town meeting, voters approved spending up to $110,000 from surplus to purchase land for a public safety building. The town paid $100,000 for the site — the former Waleik’s Field parcel — 20 acres along the Roxbury Road and the Swift River.

Fire Chief Mat Theriault said prior to getting the grant, the town was considering having the Fire Department operate from the Meroby School building, which will be turned over to the town around January when the new Mountain Valley Community School opens.

Theriault said the initial construction cost for 12,800 square feet structure was $7.7 million to $10.3 million, just for construction.

“I said, we’ve got to do something different. It’s out of our range. We have $6 million. That’s all we have,” he said.

The size was reduced to 11,800 square feet, with the construction between $4.7 to $7.1 million, with other costs bringing the total to $5.98 million. “So $6 million was doable in that range,” he said.

Fire Department Safety Officer Jack Gaudet asked about the timeline they have to use the $4.5 million USDA grant.

Welch-Day said, “We’ve got to make some kind of commitment within a year. If it doesn’t pass at this vote, you might eek it out for the next one, but after that, it’s not going to happen, and they’d give the money to somebody else.”

She added they have to match 25%, no matter what the cost is.

Theriault said, “To get the full grant, we have to spend the $1.5 (million).”