BANGOR – The city’s voters will have a say in the location of their next police station as the result of a petition drive that wrapped up earlier this month.

After a public hearing that drew comments from 10 residents, all of them in favor of keeping the station downtown, city councilors voted to place a referendum question on the Nov. 2 ballot.

The referendum question will ask voters if they want to rescind the council’s May 24 order designating a site near Bangor International Airport and authorize staff to “take the necessary steps to proceed with the location and construction of the police headquarters at 240 Main Street.”

Though not a fan of the Main Street site, which a majority of city councilors have concluded does not meet the police department’s space needs, Councilor Frank Farrington made the motion to put the matter before voters. Councilor John Cashwell seconded the motion.

“It seems to me that we have a very, very good system,” Farrington said. Voters elect city councilors and charge them with making decisions – “some of which you like and some of which you don’t.” In the case of decisions that voters don’t like, he said, voters had three options, namely the recall process, making their feelings known at council elections, and the petition process.

Supporters of keeping the station downtown chose the latter, gathering more than 2,300 signatures by their Aug. 4 deadline.

“You did that and, to me, it is a no-brainer,” Farrington said. “The people have spoken.”

Michael Robinson, a candidate for council last fall and part of the group that collected the signatures, was among those who addressed the council during the hearing.

“This wasn’t an easy process,” he said of the petition effort. “It wasn’t something that we wanted to do. We felt an injustice was done.”

Others, like resident Valerie Carter, said the station needed to be downtown because of the crime that occurs there, because the city’s investment in its waterfront should be protected and because the city does not yet know what crime, if any, the racino coming to Bass Park will bring.

Councilor Gerry Palmer, who along with Councilor Annie Allen broke ranks with the council majority and championed keeping the station downtown, said, “I am comfortable with the public’s decision. I’m very proud of this community.”

Once the petitioners succeeded in gathering the required number of signatures to get the issue before voters, the council’s options boiled down to two: they could put the question on the ballot, or they could forgo the election and adopt an order designating 240 Main St. as the site for the new station.

Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick, whose research into the police station issue included a ride-along with Bangor Police Lt. Steve Hunt one Saturday night, attempted to introduce a third option, the current location of the Capital Ambulance Service at 315 Harlow St. His suggestion was shot down in a 6-2 vote.

Palmer argued that putting a third site on the table for consideration “flies completely in the face of what these 2,300 people have done.” Allen also objected to the concept.

After the meeting, Gratwick said that the site would soon be vacated because the ambulance garage was in poor shape and no longer met the service’s needs.

He recommended it in an attempt to support the concept of keeping the station downtown, but at a site he believes would provide police the room they need.

He said if voters supported the downtown site, he hoped the city would provide the funding needed to provide adequate space.