A variety of factors is causing trouble for a long-planned fire station in Edgewood, but what it comes down to is the almighty dollar. The fire department is looking into funding sources to pay for a $3.2 million fire station in Edgewood, off N.M. 344 north of the freeway.

Paperwork for a loan from the New Mexico Finance Authority has been submitted, according to Santa Fe County Fire Chief Stan Holden, but it comes with an estimated annual payment of $240,000. When asked where that money might come from, Holden is playing his cards pretty close to the chest.

That's because Holden isn't the only one in the county looking for funding.

"Things are so fiscally tight right now in the county," he said. "… I think the economic situation has impacted everyone so significantly. Not only in our private lives, but in our professional lives … it's killing us."

The department is down some $1.5 million to $1.7 million per year since the defeat of a quarter-cent gross receipts tax in 2009 — money that paid for equipment for the fire department. That has squeezed the department's budget, and it means that the renovation of a training facility will be put on hold.

The fire department still plans to buy the property for the training facility, what was a New Mexico Laborers Union training facility on Martin Road, north of Interstate 40.

The building is an industrial building and 20 acres that costs about $830,000. That funding comes from a general obligation bond for the purpose of buying a training facility, Holden said.

Holden said the fire department became aware of the facility when it was under consideration as a possible animal shelter for Edgewood. It moved to buy it after Edgewood abandoned the location as a possibility a few years ago.

Phase one of the plans for remodeling the building, replacing heating and air conditioning units and the water pump run about $525,000 he said. It's money the fire department can't spare if it plans to move forward with a fire station in Edgewood.

"I'm pushing real hard," he said, "Trying to get this thing (the Edgewood fire station) up and out of the ground this year."

The planned 15,000 square foot station will have six doors for engines, basically three drive-through bays capable of housing up to nine engines.

It will also have the advantage of being designed for firefighters to bunk down for the night, unlike the existing facility, which is off the frontage road north of Interstate 40 and east of N.M. 344. Part of the garage area is being used for bedrooms in that station, Holden said.

Meanwhile, the bond issues in Edgewood were killed, which may lead the town to back off of its plans to build on Section 16, near the planned location of the fire station, at least for a while. Holden said that may affect the joint plans for piping in water and building a roadway near the station.

It is also the mood of voters, tea party activists specifically, that seem to have altered the county's financial landscape. At least part of the issue goes back to the quarter-cent gross receipts tax, Holden said.

"I understand the mood of people, everybody is struggling right now, I understand what transpired," he said. "I just wish they had come to me and asked some questions … before the tea party campaign."

Holden said he spoke to some of the campaigners after the tax was defeated. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about how the gross receipts tax funding could be used, he said. Some of those who campaigned against the tax thought the money could be used to pay for other projects. While Holden can't hold up signs and urge people to vote for a tax hike, he said he'd like to get the facts out to voters.