SINCLAIR, Maine — Officials from across the state came out in heavy rain on Thursday morning to formally break ground on a new $3 million fire station in the unorganized village of Sinclair, which borders Long Lake.
The new fire station project will replace another facility more than 80 years old in Sinclair used by North Lakes Fire & Rescue, an agency that focuses on lakeside communities between Caribou and the northern border. In addition to Sinclair, North Lakes also has stations in Cross Lake and Madawaska Lake.
The project is expected to be completed in roughly one year. A.M Construction & Roofing of Caribou is the project’s contractor.
Officials have been discussing the need for a new station for several years. The original station was built in the 1940s and doesn’t have handicapped accessibility, hot water, or up-to-date electrical wiring. Its truck bay also just barely fits modern vehicles.
More than $2 million in funding for the station was approved in 2023 by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and was officially accepted in 2025 by the Aroostook County Commissioners two years later via a U.S. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development grant loan. The remainder of the funding will be covered through the state’s unorganized territory fund and paid over three years.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who is chair of the appropriations committee and helped secure the funding, wrote a letter for the ceremony that was read by Trisha House, Collins’ state office representative.
“Here in Maine, one of our greatest needs is replacing or renovating obsolete public safety facilities,” Collins wrote. “Across the state, I have seen fire stations with black mold, out-of-date equipment, frozen water pipes, and bays that are too small to accommodate modern fire trucks.”
The old station, if it were built later, would be in violation of current Land Use Planning Commission standards, as it is located less than 150 feet away from the Long Lake shoreline. But since it was built before the Land Use Regulation Commission (now known as the Land Use Planning Commission) was founded in 1971, it is not technically a violation.
To ensure that this is not the case with the new station, commissioners in 2023 approved purchasing a 7.69-acre lot for $75,000 just down the road from the existing fire station.
North Lakes Fire Chief Darren Woods thanked everyone involved who helped make the project possible, and said he was pleased to see the project come to fruition. North Lakes covers 180 square miles of territory, and is the last remaining unorganized territory fire department in the state of Maine.
Maine United States Department of Agriculture Director John Butera emphasized the importance of the new station to the people living in Sinclair and surrounding areas.
“A project like this is very critical to making sure that these people continue to be safe and enjoy their communities,” Butera said. “In rural development, our mission is simple: we invest in rural communities.”
Aroostook County Administrator Justin Tibbetts also spoke about the importance of the new facility to the region.
“This project represents more than just a new building,” Tibbetts said, “it’s an investment in the safety, resilience, and the future of the North Lakes communities, the firefighters who serve this region and dedicate countless hours to protecting our residents, our visitors, homes, camps, businesses, and our natural resources.”