Voters turn down $8.5 million Pingree Grove fire station plan

Pingree Grove and Countryside Fire Protection District voters have one again rejected borrowing money to build and equip two new fire stations.

According to unofficial results, 1,558 people voted Tuesday against a district plan to borrow $8.5 million, compared to 1,005 yes votes.

Similar questions had been shot down three times since April 2017. Had the measure been approved, property taxes would have increased $46 a year for the owner of $250,000 home.

In the failed plan, stations on Rippburger Road and on Plank Road would be closed, and two new stations would be built on Highland Avenue just east of Coombs Road and on land on Dittman Road.

- Harry Hitzeman