Officials in Sanford are implementing a project to replace the city’s two principal but aging fire stations.

Voters approved the $42.5 million project in the Nov. 5 election.

Fire Chief Scott Susi said, however, that the soonest crews can break ground on the new stations will be Jan. 1, 2026, “and that’s being gracious.”

The project aims to replace the central fire station on Main Street and a satellite fire station on Oak Street in the city’s Springvale neighborhood.  

The replacement stations will include a new central fire station at 1280 Main St. near the intersection of Mayflower Drive, and a new station in Springvale at the intersection of Payne, Water and Pleasant streets.  

A third existing station, at 1847 Main St. near Sanford Airport, is being used to store equipment, and the department expects to close it down once the project is finished.

Susi said it will take 8-10 months to make sure the city has secured all the necessary permits to do the work.

“That’s part of the process, I’ve been told, is that we have to be sure that the permits are in place before we can put a shovel in the ground.”

The city has been examining the needs of both stations since 2016, Susi said. At the central station, he said, there is no proper way to clean gear after a fire call, leaving firefighters vulnerable to carcinogens. The station, he added, was built before the department had female firefighters, so there are no separate bathrooms or shower facilities. 

“This building alone was built for four full-time employees, and now we have 8-9 full-time employees working in here every day with one rest room, with one shower, and we shower after every incident now to get all the, for lack of a better term, ‘bad things’ off us, so it makes it very difficult to be able to function that way in a house that was built for four,” he said.

The Springvale station, Susi said, was built 100 years ago, when firefighters had horse-drawn firefighting equipment. Studies have shown a lack of disabled persons’ access to the station’s second floor, and evidence of asbestos.

Despite the needs, Susi said a grass-roots effort spread criticism on social media, which nearly stopped the project. According to the city clerk’s office, the project passed earlier this month by only 324 votes.

Susi said he expects to be putting the project out to bid by this time next year.