the early 1990s (another bad year for members of the Barney family, who lost a farmhouse and attached horse barn to fire), voters rejected, for three consecutive years, proposals to pay for a modern fire station before finally approving $25,000 in 1993. As part of that deal, the volunteer emergency responders were required to “donate” $15,000 to the project. The station was the last major capital program approved by town voters, and it would become the place where things happen in Grafton—not only for emergency responders, but for the entire town, which uses it as an official meeting space.
