DUMMERSTON — After multiple Selectboard meetings, a petition, and an hour-long public information session on whether taxpayers should fund a new central fire station, on August 9, voters overwhelmingly chose to support the West Dummerston Volunteer Fire Department.
According to Town Clerk Laurie Frechette, the tally was 401 yes, 69 no, and two blank ballots.
Fire department officials have said that the current central station is inadequate for modern firefighting needs. Some of their trucks are too large to fit inside the building.
Volunteers have raised about 40-percent of the estimated $250,000 to $280,000 cost of demolishing the current station on East-West Road and building a new one in its place.
Officials with the department received permission from the Selectboard to put a vote to townspeople to raise the remaining $175,000 through taxes - although with continued department fundraising, that amount could be less.