At the Onset Fire District's Annual Meeting on May 16, voters will be asked to appropriate approximately $3.3 million for fire and water department budgets and fund a $100,000 study examining renovation options for the nearly 70-year-old Onset Fire Station.

The district consists of the Fire Department and the Water Department. Registered voters living in the district may participate in the meeting.

Some of the agenda items to be voted on include a $818,400 request (article 6) for insurance and other expenses, a $772,650 request (article 13) to fund the fire department payroll and a $352,700 appropriation (article 19) for the water department payroll.

“For the most part, these are our routine articles that support the operations of the district,” said Clerk-Treasurer Mary McCoy.

Article 6, which funds health and district insurance, the retirement account and other expenses, is up $107,870 from the current fiscal year, a 15 percent increase.

District officials will ask for $100,000 to fund a feasibility study to explore renovation options for the fire station.

At the meeting, members of the Onset Fire Station Building Committee will present its report on the need for a study.

“As our job has evolved and things have changed, the building itself hasn’t, unfortunately, grown with us,” said Onset Fire Chief Ray Goodwin. “It’s become very difficult to fit the trucks into the building.”

In addition to being able to house modern trucks, Goodwin said there is a lack of storage space in the building. The station doesn’t have modern electrical and heating equipment either.

Funds for the study will be used to hire an architect to evaluate the department’s needs.

Purchasing new equipment for the fire department is on the agenda as well.

Goodwin said a $20,000 request for thermal imagers and a $15,000 for a machine designed to remove carcinogens from gear will improve firefighters’ health and well-being.

Thermal imaging units are used to locate people and pets who may be lost or missing, Goodwin said.

The new machine will be used to clean gear and clothing contaminated during calls.

“It should help prevent cancer,” Goodwin said. “It will wash away carcinogens and hopefully prevent bad things from happening in the future.”

If approved, article 17 would establish a new “roll over” account for the fire department where excess funds would be saved to help offset future capital purchases.

“That way when we have to replace something it’s not quite as big a fiscal blow,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin encourages voters to approve article 18, which would take advantage of a federal, matching grant. The article requests a $250,000 transfer from the stabilization fund to the new fire engine account.

If the department is awarded the FEMA-AFG grant, the federal agency will match the amount transferred, which will be used to purchase a new fire engine.

Goodwin noted that if the grant is not approved, the $250,000 will be transferred back to the stabilization fund without being spent.

In total, there are 30 items on the meeting’s agenda. The Annual Meeting for the Onset Fire District and Water Department will be on Monday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dudley L. Brown Post, VFW in Onset, located at 4 Gibbs Ball Park Road.

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