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Deep River Firehouse Expansion Fails at Referendum

Residents voted today to deny the $2.4 million expansion and renovation of the 50-year-old firehouse at the corner of Union and Elm streets. The vote was 347 opposed (four absentee) to 312 (five absentee) in favor. An earlier proposal, which called for a $3.8 million expansion and renovation, was turned aside by voters in a 2007 referendum.

The new proposal would have provided a one-story completely finished addition. The plan called for retaining the 10-foot "bump out" detailed in the original proposal, adding space deemed necessary for the apparatus bay.

The original firehouse, built in 1961, was adequate at that time, but equipment, trucks, and engines have become larger, more sophisticated, and more varied over the last five decades. The present space is no longer adequate, according to Deep River Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Bob Raymond.

The failed addition would have added about 5,000 square feet for administration and 600 square feet for apparatus floor space.