BANGOR – When Bangor residents voted nearly 2-to-1 on Election Day to keep the proposed new police station downtown instead of moving it near the airport, they sent the project’s planners back to the drawing board.

On Monday, city officials and their architect picked up where they left off in May, when the council decided to scrap the downtown site at 240 Main St. they originally designated in favor of a larger parcel on Maine Avenue, near Bangor International Airport.

While no one disagreed that a new police station is needed soon – the current one on Court Street is badly deteriorated – its total price tag remains at issue.

Councilor Dan Tremble’s move to provide the Police Department with an additional $1.2 million to bolster the current $6.5 million budget for the project met some initial resistance Monday.

“Generally, I’m a little tighter with a buck than some of the other people on the council,” Tremble said, adding, “I think the public knew what they were doing [when they decided to keep the police station downtown].” He said the project was too important “to nickel and dime to make it fit. I think we need a quality police station we can be proud of.”

Not so fast, said some of his council colleagues.

“There’s no way I can spend 1 million bucks without sleeping on it,” said Councilor Richard Stone, who served on the council in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was re-elected to another three-year term last week.

Councilor John Cashwell also thought more time was needed to study the proposal.

The project, officials noted, will require buying or relocating Bangor Radiator, which occupies the corner of Main and Cedar streets destined for the new police headquarters.

The city and the business owner have yet to set a price, which Cashwell said must occur before making a decision on the plan.

“I just feel we haven’t done our due diligence,” he said.

Before the Nov. 2 vote, Police Chief Don Winslow said on several occasions that he could make either site work. He said, however, that if voters chose the downtown site, he would return to the council to ask for an additional $1.2 million needed to restore parts of the original project that were eliminated to keep it within its $6.5 million budget.

Though a new one-story station could have been built near the airport for the original amount, the lead architect on the Bangor police station project said there were two problems with the downtown site that added to the overall cost.

One was poor soils that don’t support weight well, Matthew Carter of WBRC said. That will require that the new station be built on pilings, which will add to the cost.

In addition, a plume of underground petroleum contamination exists on the site. That will require that the station be built on a ventilated slab, much like those used to handle radon gas and similar pollutants.

Another meeting will be held in two weeks to decide on the final budget for the project. No date for the meeting has been set.