LAKEVILLE — Lakeville will get a design for a new fire station, but the town will not yet pay for a mock-up of a possible new town hall.

Schematic designs for a potential new fire station at a cost of $220,000 and for an expanded town hall at $205,000 were originally proposed in a single warrant article at the Nov. 14 Special Town Meeting. That article also included allocating $30,000 for firearms replacement for the police department. The total cost would be $455,000 for the three items.

But voters decided to take the items individually, agreeing with a proposal by resident Brynna Donahue to separate the article into three separate votes.

Voters subsequently approved the firearm replacements and the fire station design, but they rejected the town hall schematic cost. All three expenses would be taken from free cash, which is money left over from the previous year’s budget.

The Select Board will discuss moving forward with the fire station project at a future Select Board meeting. The next meeting takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 5:30 p.m.

Fire Chief Michael O’Brien said a new fire station would cut firefighters’ response times in half, from two minutes to one minute.

“We need a new fire station, that’s plain and simple, end of story,” Donahue said. “But I do not trust it to be done in a fiscally responsible way if we pass both schematics at the same time.”

Resident Robert Urbanek felt concerned about spending money before seeing the final cost of the town hall plan.

“We can’t come up with the final cost until we do a preliminary plan,” said Select Board Chair Rich LaCamera. “The purpose of this money is to get the preliminary plans done so we can bring it back to Town Meeting with the exact cost. Then the Town Meeting will vote on it.”

Resident Dan Wrenn said that while he supports a new fire station and town hall, he believes that Lakeville is “spending money like drunken sailors.” 

“There’s always that next thing,” Wrenn said. “How are we supposed to pay for that?”

Residents voted against a proposal to hold a secret ballot for the fire station schematic vote.

A vote recount was taken for the town hall schematic after a miscommunication between the moderator and tellers counting votes from people in the overflow seats in Apponequet’s cafeteria and gym.

In total, 469 voters voted against passing the town hall schematic design, and 321 residents voted in favor. The fire station design passed by a majority vote. Both schematics required a simple majority vote to pass.