Adding four new firefighters by using a federal grant to offset some of the cost was one of the issues debated during Windham’s deliberative session of Town Meeting.

Selectmen are seeking to bring on the additional firefighters, who would also be emergency medical technicians, if a warrant article is approved by voters in March.

Passage of the warrant article would also allow selectmen to use a federal Security Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to defray some of the costs through 2012.

Roger Hohenberger, the sole selectman to vote against recommending the article, said during the Saturday, Feb. 9, session that the town would spend roughly $1.1 million to receive $421,000.

Hohenberger said he believes that the department is running efficiently with the manpower it has now.

“The need for the firefighters is in the future,” he said to a small group of voters gathered in the Golden Brook School gymnasium.

Another selectman, Margaret Crisler, supports the hiring, citing the town’s fast growth and new commercial development. The town could use the extra firefighters now and acquiring federal money to add them is prudent, she said.

Deputy Fire Chief Robert Leuci Jr. told the audience that in the past 10 years, service calls to the department have increased 69 percent. Currently about a third of the calls come in when workers are already out answering calls.

A large increase in calls is expected when the state Department of Transportation begins to widen I-93, Leuci said. While demand for service is rising, fewer call firefighters are available, and other communities who provide mutual aid are experiencing their own growth, Leuci said.

“We don’t think it’s fair to expect that from other communities,” he added.

Voters considered 28 other articles during the meeting but only a few of them generated debate. Voters added language to an article specifying that a proposed transfer of 16 acres of recreation and conservation land to the school district is to be used specifically for a football stadium, athletic fields and ancillary support facilities.

School Board members are asking voters to accept the land, to accommodate the stadium and three additional fields, in exchange for 40 acres of school district land. Some residents didn’t like the idea of giving up the land, while others supported the swap.

“They have a demonstrated need for this land,” said Planning Board member Ross McLeod.

Voters also made minor changes to a revised blasting ordinance. Under the proposed rules, blasting would be permitted only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays and not allowed on weekends and town-observed holidays.

Without any debate, the selectmen’s proposed $11,645,020 operating budget, taken up at the end of the meeting, was forwarded to the March 11 ballot. If the budget and all money warrant articles pass, and officials receive the revenues they expect, the town’s share of the property tax rate will increase roughly 34 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

During the meeting, Town Administrator David Sullivan presented the Volunteer of the Year award to Larry Kaufman, who drives a town-owned van that brings residents to stores and medical appointments.

Capt. Patrick Yatsevich, who returned to work last year after taking a leave of absence to fight cancer, was honored as the town’s Employee of the Year.