Voters reject $3.5M Pine Grove fire station upgrade

PHOTOGRAPHER: Justin Mason

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Voters have resoundingly defeated a $3.5 million plan that would renovate the Pine Grove fire station.

The resolution to renovate and expand the aging fire house on Dunnsville Road was shot down 201-68, according to an official from the fire district. Fire Commissioner Herb LeTarte III said turnout was high for the vote and suspects the cost of the projects stirred anti-tax sentiment among district residents.

“I think it was a general malaise against taxation altogether,” he said Wednesday. “That’s my guess, they’ve had it with taxes altogether.”

The 30-member volunteer fire department covering parts of Princetown, Rotterdam and Guilderland was hoping to renovate the existing station and add 4,200 square feet of space. The project would have represented the first substantial renovation of the station since 1984 and only the second since the building was constructed in the early 1970s.

The proposal included the construction of a new bay to fit up to six vehicles. The existing fire station would get a new public entrance lobby along the east side, while the existing truck bays on the southwest corner will be dedicated to housing emergency rescue vehicles.

The cost would was going to be bonded over 25 years. Rotterdam residents in the Pine Grove district would have seen an increase of about 77 cents per $1,000 of property value.