PLYMOUTH – Almost ten years after plans fell through for a joint Plymouth volunteer firehouse and town hall, Monday members of the town board said they’re reconsidering that idea.
In 1998, the town board opted out of creating offices at what is now solely the Plymouth Fire District Volunteer Department, located on state Rt. 23.
Now, current board members agree the firehouse is probably the most cost effective site on which to build new town offices.
“We need our own facilities,” said Councilman Robert Baker. “Adding on to here is another way to save money.”
The town board already uses the firehouse’s community room for its monthly meetings. Town justices also hold court there. The space does not have a spot for the town clerk Marie N. Whaley, who works out of her home.
“We should take a giant step and move right into it,” said newly-elected board member Gary Simpson, who was welcomed at his first meeting Monday night. “We should look at it now.”
The board discussed hiring engineers to look into what can be done at the existing firehouse site in terms of adding more square footage.
“It would be cheaper to build here,” said Robert I. Brown.
“That’s what I think,” added Supervisor Jerry L. Kreiner.
Recently a “building committee” was formed and there had been some discussion of constructing a new town hall where the existing town garage is on Moon Hill or on a new site yet to be purchased.
“I think it would be foolish to go out and get another piece of property when all the infrastructure is already on that site (firehouse),” said town resident George Blood Tuesday. “And with the property already paid for, it would be foolish to do anything anywhere else.”
Blood noted that the town’s property taxes are scheduled to increase 15.2 percent in 2008. That said, in Blood’s opinion, to take more land off the tax rolls and spend more tax dollars to build a new town hall from scratch would not make sense.
Blood was president of the Plymouth Citizens Committee, which raised money and donated funds for infrastructure at the firehouse site from 1995 to 2002 with the idea that it would become a town hall.
But the push for a joint town hall and firehouse ended in June 1998, when the then Plymouth board opted out of joining the building after three years of planning. According to Rena Doing, then a member of the Plymouth Citizen’s Committee, the board gave no reason for dropping the plans.
Construction of the fire station was completed in 2000. The land was purchased by the fire district, with much of the infrastructure paid for by the citizens committee. According to past reports confirmed by a member of the Fire District, under the original agreement – if the town hadn’t opted out – it would have purchased its share of the land from the fire district for a token amount $1, as well as pay for the construction costs of the town offices.