BELGRADE — Plans to build a new $6.8 million Central Fire Station on Augusta Road can now proceed.

That’s because the town was recently notified it will receive $4.7 million in federal funding toward the project.

Officials first sought the Congressionally Directed Spending grant in 2024 through the offices of U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, advancing past early rounds before funding stalled under a March continuing resolution. The town reapplied in April, but the government shutdown delayed review. When the government reopened last week, officials learned the town will receive the funding, now included in the 2026 Agricultural Appropriations Bill approved by both chambers.

“We’re just very excited,” Belgrade town Manager Lorna Dee Nichols said, “and we’re super thankful to Sens. Collins and King for their bipartisan support on getting this through for us. I think this is a huge benefit for the community.”

The new, 14,400-square-foot fire and rescue station is to be built at 1387 Augusta Road on more than 2 acres the town purchased in 2024 for about $250,000. A house and garage on the property will be torn down and construction is expected to start in 2026.

“I would assume we would like to have it finished prior to winter of next year — I don’t know if that’s possible,” Nichols said.

Town building committee members, including Nichols, fire officials, the town’s facilities maintenance director, a member of the selectperson’s board and Sheridan Construction Corp., have been meeting for about a year to discuss building plans. The town has been putting away money for the project for about five years and voters approved spending $2.1 million to fill the funding gap.

“We’re hoping this is going to be a 50-plus-year building,” fire Chief Daniel MacKenzie said. “We’re trying to set it up for future, full-time people.”

MacKenzie is a volunteer chief and the department has two full-time, paid employees — rescue Chief Travis Burton and Danielle Bedard, an advanced emergency medical technician — who work Monday through Sunday. The department, which covers Rome when the full-time employees are working, also has about 30 volunteers, about 10 of whom are active. The department is licensed at the paramedic level but doesn’t transport patients to hospitals.

The department responds to between 500 and 600 calls per year and this year, the number is close to 600, MacKenzie said.

The town has three current fire department locations: The Belgrade Lakes Village station at 1 Augusta Road, the North Belgrade fire station at 449 Smithfield Road and a station at 214 Depot Road. The village station has limited space, especially for fire and rescue vehicles.

The new station, to be named “Central Fire Station,” will be more centrally located and have more room, including for office space, dorm-type rooms for staff to stay overnight, bathrooms and showers, according to Nichols and MacKenzie.

“We know that to plan for the future, we will need to hire additional full-time staff,” Nichols said.

Wes Jordan, sales manager for Sheridan, said the new station will be a preengineered metal building with four drive-through bays for equipment, trailers and utility vehicles, a decontamination room, space for dispatchers and training, overnight facilities, kitchen and more.

The $6.8 million total includes soft costs for department needs, and the actual construction cost of the building is estimated at $5.5 million, according to Jordan.

“It’s going to be a nice new facility to serve their needs,” he said.

Sheridan designed and will construct the building and the civil engineering consultant is Sitelines P.A., based in Brunswick. “It will probably be a 12-month project, start to finish,” Jordan said.

He said Mayflower Drive, which runs perpendicular to Augusta Road, will be slightly reworked to accommodate the new fire station, which will have an asphalt parking lot and a gravel overflow lot.

MacKenzie, who has been chief about 12 years and has been with the fire department 35, said he has formed a committee to start raising funds in the spring to help offset some of the costs for the new station.

“We’ve been working on this for five years, just first trying to secure a piece of land, applying for the grant,” he said. “It has been a long road.”