Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Capital Region Independent Media voters in the Selkirk Fire District head to the polls next month to decide the fate of an $11.8 million renovation project. The proposal will not result in a tax increase, fire department officials said. The plan, presented to the community late last week, is a revision of the $18-million project rejected by voters in 2018. That proposal would have led to an average tax increase of roughly $100 a year for local property owners. The district has three fire stations — on Maple Avenue in Selkirk, on Glenmont Road in Glenmont, and on Bridge Street in South Bethlehem. If approved, the new plan would allow for the construction of a new station on Route 9W near A.W. Becker Elementary School to replace the Selkirk firehouse, and improvements would be made to the Glenmont house. There are no plans to renovate station 3 in South Bethlehem. The last time the district built a firehouse was in 1965. “The buildings are unsafe for our volunteer firefighters, too small for modern apparatus and too outdated for repair,” according to the project’s website. “Additionally, the buildings are not code compliant and lack the proper amount of apparatus storage and operational, decontamination, meeting, training and administrative space.” The project would be financed with two bonds, augmented by funds that have been set aside, Rob Messenger, from the Selkirk Fire District, said. If the project is approved, construction should begin in the spring of 2021. Polls will be open 1 to 9 p.m., Oct. 6, at all three existing Selkirk firehouses. Read the full story in The Ravena News-Herald.