HAMPSTEAD — Now may not be the best time to ask taxpayers to dip into their wallets, the police chief said, but he and a panel working on the new station project have decided they must ask residents to support a new building, even though the voters said no last year.
Police Chief Joseph Beaudoin said the project's biggest supporters have been elderly residents and newcomers.
"I don't know how much more of a burden they can carry," he said.
Beaudoin's top priority this coming year is manpower. He also will ask taxpayers for two more police officers.
Last Thursday, the Police Station Building Committee voted unanimously to put the new station proposal on the Town Meeting ballot. But it won't be exactly the same question because although the building plan is the same as the one rejected a year ago, the dollar amounts are different.
Now the same building will cost $400,000 more to construct, due primarily to increases in the prices of steel, copper and asphalt, according Jorge Mesa-Tejada, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the station committee. He estimated the price has climbed to $2.7 million.
Dean Howard, another member of the building committee, said the new police station is supposed to be Hampstead's next capital project, and the voters should see the question on the ballot again this year, regardless of their decision.
"We waited quite a while to get in line," he said, while the taxpayers paid for other projects.
"We've got to stay in line," Beaudoin agreed. "The schools had their turn. The library had their turn. This building here is falling down around us. It's an awful lot to ask the people to give us. But I don't want them to forget about the building."
Hampstead police have run out of room at their headquarters, which lacks space to hold suspects, or store weapons and evidence securely, Mesa-Tejada said. The station can't be expanded because it's in a historic district.
Plans for the new building, which would go on six acres off West Road, have sat on the drawing board since voters last year turned down the $2.3 million project. Beaudoin and building committee members said last week they fear the project will run out of steam permanently if the building committee fails to step up and put the question to voters again in March.
