CAMDEN — A proposal that would add a third building to the town’s public safety complex will come before selectmen March 1.

Camden voters in June 1997 approved borrowing $485,000 to renovate the Fire Department and ambulance buildings and $150,000 to buy new radio equipment. Town officials were sent back to the drawing board, though, when contractor bids for the project came in 25 percent higher than the available funds.

Town Manager Roger Moody and Selectman John French Jr. say they believe scuttling that plan has been for the best.

Last June, town officials surveyed residents as they left the polls, asking what they would like to see in the way of public safety planning. Moody said the clear message was to plan for 20 to 30 years’ growth — and to keep the facility in the village.

“There was a clear preference for downtown,” Moody said. The town owns two buildings on a lot measuring about three-quarters of an acre on Washington Street and Tannery Lane.

The Camden First Aid Association houses its ambulance and rescue vehicles in one building, and the other, known as the Oxton Annex, houses the town’s firefighting equipment. The dispatching office is at the center of the two structures. Together, the buildings measure about 11,000 square feet.

What is being considered by a public safety committee and will be put before selectmen at their March 1 meeting is a plan to buy two adjacent parcels of land and construct a building that would include 8,500 square feet of space on two floors. The new building would house the Police Department. The department is now housed in the town office, a few hundred yards away in the Camden Opera House building. The new structure also would provide space for other needs, such as a 1,200-square-foot room in which firefighters could hold training sessions and where polling booths could be set up for elections.

The town has negotiated options to buy the two adjacent parcels. A parcel owned by David Dickey measures 0.97 acre and would cost $265,000. A house on the parcel would be demolished or moved. The other parcel, owned by Lewis King, measures 0.12 acre and would sell for $125,000.

“There’s room for growth” in both the building and the additional land, French said.

Moody and French said the cost of the new building is estimated at $850,000. Both men said the land purchase question would probably be put before voters at a June referendum vote. They explained that should residents not want to buy the land, there would be no need to pursue the building plans.

The 14-member public safety committee, which includes the fire chief, police chief, police officers, firefighters, Moody, French and fellow Selectman Sid Lindsley, will review the costs of the building in more detail when it meets Thursday.

In addition to freeing space in the town office and consolidating public safety departments, buying the land would provide room for much-needed downtown parking, Moody and French said. There are now 33 spaces in the lot next to the fire and ambulance buildings and on the street beside them. Architect John Hansen’s plans show with the new building and additional land, about 76 parking spaces could be provided.

The two-story building would be built into a hill, Moody explained, allowing residents to enter the second floor to vote in the 1,200-square-foot all-purpose room from an adjacent parking lot.

As Knox County and the city of Rockland move forward to establish a consolidated emergency dispatching center in anticipation of Enhanced-911 service, Camden officials are committed to maintaining the town’s own dispatch center.

Moody said residents have expressed their desire to be able to walk in and speak with a dispatcher downtown.