LAKEVILLE — Lakeville voters gave the green light to a new fire station Tuesday, Jan. 28 by a margin of more than 2-1.

A total of 813 votes were cast in support of the debt exclusion to fund a new station, with 346 opposing the project. A debt exclusion, as opposed to a Proposition 2 ½ override, allows a town to temporarily increase the levy limit without changing the levy limit for future years.

The vote means a new station can move forward. 

“I’m just grateful,’’ Fire Chief Michael O’Brien said immediately after the votes were tallied and announced at Loon Pond Lodge. “We’ve been working for this a long time, long before I arrived’’ as chief.

He thanked the “generations of firefighters’’ who have advocated for a new station.

Among them is Lakeville retired Deputy Fire Chief Will Purcell. The positive vote “has been a long time coming,’’ he said. “This should have happened a long time ago.’’

Voters in all three town precincts supported the station. The totals were 288 to 106 in precinct 1; 291 to 147 in precinct 2 and 234 to 93 in precinct 3.

Of the town’s 9,788 eligible voters, 1,159 cast votes, representing an 11.8 percent turnout. 

A new station will provide safer conditions and allow for faster response times to call, the chief has said. The building is slated to be built near the current police station at 323 Bedford St.

Funding a new station was approved by a wide margin at the Nov. 12 Special Town Meeting. That vote triggered the debt exclusion question that was supported Jan. 28.

For a homeowner with a house valued at $450,000, the estimated 30-year tax impact will total $5,400, with tax bills increasing from a low of $72 per year to a high of $284.