PERU — The Peru Fire Department is asking residents to approve a referendum today for up to $5 million in future renovations and expansion to its current station.
Voting will take place at the Peru Fire Department at 753 Bear Swamp Road between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. today.
Fire Chief Brian Westover said their station is 50 years old and has started to show signs of it, prompting the need for the proposed upgrades.
“And with the increased size of trucks … space is getting limited,” Westover said.
“Some of the upgrades that are being done are also part of looking toward the future.”
Included in the proposed plans is a 40-foot extension to the front of the current station.
Westover said the renovations would address the standards being proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for fire departments as well. This includes the addition of decontamination rooms for washing and drying turnout gear or fire equipment in the plans.
The “decon rooms,” he explained, will eliminate carcinogens, that are associated with firefighting, in a location where the general public would never be in the station.
The plans also take into account the issue of vehicle exhaust fumes.
Westover said a system will be in place so when a vehicle is started, fumes from the exhaust will be directly removed to the outside of the station, ensuring no personnel will be exposed to pollutants.
“I’ll give the commissioners a lot of credit, they’re not looking for just today; they’re looking for the future with this.”
Board of Fire Commissioners Vice Chairman, Courtney Teltrault, said planning for these upgrades has been in the works for a couple years now.
“We brought an engineer on to look at some deficiencies with the building, to look over if it made sense to fix what we had or if we should look at something new,” he said.
“The decision was made to fix the existing building, put an addition on, give us a little extra room, fix some drainage issues … add some more parking.”
Teltrault said if the referendum is approved, and the department ends up needing the full $5 million in renovations, taxpayers can expect their tax rate to tentatively increase $.66 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
“That’s estimated at a 6% interest rate,” he said.
“Obviously, that stuff can change a little.”
Teltrault said they are eyeing a 25-year bond.
He said they were originally looking at a 15-year bond for $3.8 million that was estimated at around $.70 per $1,000 of assessed value, because they still had wood framing in parts of the building that affected the length of time they could borrow.
But when they removed the wood framing from the building, it increased their ability to borrow to 25 years, Teltrault said.
So far, he said he hasn’t personally heard any concerns from residents about the referendum but knows that “times are tough.”
“Everybody’s concerned with any high taxes at this point and we are doing our best to try to keep the cost of this project down,” he said.
“There was a $1 million dollar grant this year, but we weren’t far enough along in the steps to actually apply. We’re hoping that’s going to be there next year, and if we do have an approved referendum, that, I think, will be able to allow us to move forward and apply for that.”
Teltrault said they are also hoping to eventually refinance if the interest rates come down from the estimated 6%.
If approved, work is expected to begin in the spring of 2026.
Teltrault said he hopes the work is then completed in no more than a year, but it’s too early to determine that, because they still have to finish the final design.