Author Rota Knott said GM Viola does not yet have an estimated cost for the project. Hopefully that will be available soon, but there is no news about actual bids to do the work. The OPVFD originally estimated the cost at around $8 million. More recently, that tab was estimated to be around $5 million.

Under the new agreement between the fire department and OPA, the fire department will continue to own the fire station land but OPA will do the rebuild of the fire station and own the building - a somewhat curious arrangement.

Any OPA expenditure beyond $1 million will require approval via referendum, and OPA is preparing to hold a referendum on the fire station expenditure as a part of the board election next August.

The Progress reports financial contributions as follows:

OPA - $2.5 million

OPVFD - $1.7 million from state grants

OPVFD - $0.75 million from fundraising

That would provide around $5 million for the actual construction. Whether the final construction bids come in at or under $5 million is unknown, but the article says work will begin in October.

Since OPA will own the new building, the cost of $5 million, or whatever it becomes, will likely be added to the depreciation and added to OPA assessments.

Also unknown at this time is how OPA will actually fund the $2.5 million, or possibly greater contribution, if the referendum is approved by association members next August.