News

Citizens to decide fire barn expansion proposal
Special Town meeting Dec. 20
By Elizabeth Prata

New Gloucester-- On December 20th, New Gloucester citizens will assemble at Memorial School at a Special Town meeting to decide if they want to buy 25 acres of land on Route 100 slated to become the new home of the town's Fire Station.

Long planned-for, Selectmen unveiled the core at their negotiations that had been held in Executive Sessions for many week- a plum parcel of land in a centrally located part of town that is flat, scalable, and according to Chair Steve Libby, a quality piece.

The owner, Chandler Brothers of New Gloucester, is selling the land for its appraised value, $168,000.

The land, located at about 585 Lewiston Road has about 1,000 feet of road frontage and is in the Residential/Business District1. The land has no wetlands on it, and a large amount of large pine and oak that the Selectmen will seek to have selectively cut.

Mr. Libby said that the Department of Transportation has no issues with the access required for the curb cut, an item that the DOT monitors on its state-owned roads. Any land that is improved on State Highways must comply with new curb cut access management standards.

Three equal, annual payments would be the schedule for payment and according to Mr. Libby, "I suspect the first payment will come from the Undesignated Fund Balance, and possibly the remaining payments as well.'
The primary intent, Mr. Libby said, is for the fire station. "Although, due to its size, quality, and location, there could be other possibilities that could work well with a fire station."

The Selectmen have looked for the past 5 years for a lot and have considered several pieces prior to this one, and even negotiated for several. Items such as wetlands, location, access, price, size, and topography were inhibiting factors and the previously considered lots were eliminated.
New Gloucester Fire Chief Gary Sacco is happy with the location and size as well, Mr. Libby reported. The Fire Station Committee had submitted a capital request of land between 6 and 10 acres, enough to build a new, larger Fire Station and room for training purposes.

The Special Town Meeting will be on Tuesday, December 20 at 7 p.m. at Memorial School, Upper Gloucester, Intervale Rd. For more information, call Town Office at 926-5126.

The parcel under consideration is circled, tax map 7, lot 14. The main road shown is Lewiston Rd./Rt. 100. Bryana Way is the road at upper left with the cul-de-sac. The next road down is Elderberry Lane.