Pelham town officials are backing a plan to expand a roundabout traffic intersection at the current fire station’s location as a solution to growing traffic problems.

In a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, April 8, selectmen backed one of two traffic proposals for a roundabout to be constructed in the town center, which would force the fire station to relocate.

While only one of the two traffic options required finding a new station location, the less invasive plan would not allow much clearance for fire engines entering and exiting the station, according to town planning director Jeff Gowan.

“The fire station is basically sitting in the middle of the intersection of every single solution pattern,” said Gowan.

Two years ago, the town received a $3.9 million earmark in state and federal money to correct ongoing traffic congestion where Route 111A goes through the town center, Gowan said.

While voters have turned down two new fire station projects in the past two years, Selectman Harold Lynde said the government earmark may not be able to wait until voters are ready to approve a new station.

“We have to go back to voters, but we’re going to stall the process, and if we stall that too long someone might grab that money from us,” Lynde said. Previous studies among local residents and businessmen eliminated traffic light solutions to relieve congestion, according to Gowan, after simulations showed an increased impact from population growth and I-93’s widening.

Lynde, Robert Haverty and Douglas Vigor backed the proposal to look forward before the earmark lapses. Selectmen William McDevitt and Victor Danevich voted against the proposal.

“I think the sentiment is to solve this problem,” Lynde said. “The town said no to building a $4 million new fire station. They didn’t say no to the traffic solution.”

Lynde said the need for a new station remains as the town has grown since the station was built in the 1970s.

The Fire Department could be housed temporarily in an unused portion of the old Sherburne School, according to Lynde.

“It just happens that these two projects have met each other head-on right at this intersection,” Gowan said.