Re-vote on turning warehouse on Business Park Drive into new Tilton police station is Thursday

TILTON — Voters will have a second chance at a warrant article to raise $2.7-million to convert a town-owned warehouse building at 61 Business Park Drive into a new police station tomorrow night when a special town meeting will be held at the cafetorium of Winnisquam Regional High School beginning at 6 p.m.

At Town Meeting last month a majority voted in favor of the project, but the 108 votes fell two shy of the two-thirds majority required to approve the sale of general oblgation bonds to fund it. However, Lynne Fox of the Budget Committee, who voted with the minority against the project, offered a motion to reconsider that carried easily. "The vote was so close,"she said. "It's not in anyone's interest to prevent things from coming up for discussion again."

Two warrant articles will be presented at the special town meeting. The first calls for raising and appropriating $2.7-million for designing, constructing, furnishing and equipping the station as well as extending municipal water service to the property at 61 Business Park Drive. The cost of running the water from Route 132 is estimated at $650,000, but Casey Nickerson, owner of the business park, has entered an agreement with the town to split the cost evenly.

If the warrant article for the police station and the water line fails again, voters will be asked to consider a separate article to appropriate $650,000 to extend the water line on the understanding that Nickerson will contribute $325,000 of that sum. Water service would, it is argued, increase the value and improve the marketability of the lots, including 61 Business Park Drive and another lot owned by the town, which in turn would add to the municipal tax base and foster economic development.