HALLOWELL — Public input may influence the future of Hallowell’s nearly 200-year-old former fire station building, a subject the city has discussed for several years.

The upcoming public hearing is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 10 at 6 p.m., and officials are asking the residents to provide their thoughts on the building’s use and whether the city should continue to own it.

The structure was built in 1828 and served as the town hall until 1899 when a separate city hall was built. Then, in 1990, the fire department moved into the building. In 2018 the fire department moved to Stevens Commons.

Councilors in 2018 also discussed moving the police department to the firehouse’s first floor and keeping the Hallowell Food Pantry in the basement, but were unsure about how to utilize the remaining space. Ideas at the time included using it as apartment or museum space.

More recently, representatives from Artifex Architects & Engineers of Bangor presented city officials with a conceptual design for renovating the building to house the police station, which is currently based in the basement of city hall.

If the city moved forward with the plan as the engineers proposed, it would cost roughly $3.2 million.

The construction alone was estimated at roughly $2.3 million. This includes masonry, steel, roofing, siding, replacing windows, applying drywall and insulation for the sally port. The other $900,000 would cover general conditions, overhead and profit, design contingency, insurance, and more.

Councilors were split on whether or not to accept the proposal. Mayor George Lapointe has asked if the architects could consider reducing the amount of space given to the police so the building could have multiple uses.

Lapointe said he supported giving the police a new, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant space, but that moving from 800 square feet to 4,000 square feet seemed like a massive expansion for a relatively small police force. The department has five full-time officers, including police Chief Scott MacMaster, and another half-dozen reserve officers, according to its city web page.

But first, the city needs to decide whether or not to keep the building.

“Without a decision on keeping the building, the Hallowell Food Pantry cannot plan for its long-term future, including seeking funding and making renovations to meet the future needs of the food pantry,” Lapointe wrote in a note published on the city’s website. “Without a decision to keep the building in municipal ownership, plans to renovate the building to house the Hallowell Police Department can’t be moved forward. There are clearly follow-up decisions to be made but they all rest on this important, first decision.”

He said the council would like to hear from residents so they can make a decision based on this feedback.

A Zoom link to the meeting will be available via the city’s website. For those unable to attend, comments can be passed to councilors via City Manager Gary Lamb, who can be reached at 207-430-4403 or through email.

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