SEARSMONT — The new 10,000 square foot Searsmont fire station, which held an open house for Searsmont and nearby towns on October 14, has received a $5,000 grant from Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline, a company affiliated with Enbridge, operating more than 800 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts, including approximately 270 miles in Maine. 

M&NP has a compression station in Searsmont, less than three miles from the new fire station.

“We are very pleased to receive this generous grant,” said James Ames, chief of the Searsmont Fire Department, in a news release. “The funds have allowed us to purchase important and needed lockers for the volunteer firefighters’ uniforms and equipment.”

Bruce Brierley, Searsmont’s first selectman, noted that less than $125,000 remains to be raised to complete fund raising for the new fire station.

Marylee Hanley, Enbridge’s Manager of Stakeholder/Community Engagement, and Lara Bailey, the M&NP Right of Way Agent, recently toured the facility. They were pleased to note the five vehicle bays, training room, firefighting equipment, dispatch room, and offices of the Fire Chief, Emergency Services Director, and Emergency Management Agency, according to the release.

The building replaces a 1949 building that the town has outgrown. Searsmont’s population, now 1,700 people, has doubled in the last 25 years, and the fire department, through mutual aid agreements, now assists Belmont, Lincolnville, Montville, Liberty, Morrill, Appleton, and Belfast. 

Remaining funds for equipment as well as construction are being raised from people, businesses, and grant-making foundations, with fund raising coordination by a working group of volunteer Searsmont residents.

Donations were accepted at last Sunday’s open house, featuring a chicken barbeque by Searsmont’s volunteer firefighters.

Donor naming opportunities include the fire station itself for a $100,000 donation, firetruck bays for $50,000 gifts, the training room for the first $25,000 donor, firetrucks for $10,000 donors, and the donor’s choice of the office of the Emergency Services Director, Emergency Management Director, or Dispatcher for $5,000 gifts.

All gifts will be recognized by an honor roll plaque in the fire station.

Tax-deductible donations for the new fire station can be sent to Town of Searsmont, PO Box 56, Searsmont, Maine 04973. 

For more information, contact the Searsmont Town office by email at townofsearsmont@fairpoint.net or call 342-5411.