WURTSBORO — A majority of voters on Tuesday told the Wurtsboro Fire District they don't want - or can't afford - a new firehouse.

Board of Fire Commissioners Chairman Bill Lothrop accepted the 205-137 tally with deep discouragement.

“We can't believe the residents would go against it,” he said, speaking of his board and firefighters.

“I think it's strictly a money issue,” he mused. “The times are terrible economically.”

Indeed, the $4.7 million plan - $4.6 million of which would have been bonded - would have led to an annual tax increase of $112 on homes assessed at $100,000.

Yet it would also have resulted in a 17,000-square-foot firehouse on acreage the district already owns along Pine and Canal streets in Wurtsboro, allowing the fire department to move out of a 44-year-old structure that leaders say is no longer sufficient nor efficient (and is owned by the Village of Wurtsboro).

Even in the wake of a resounding defeat, “our design will not change,” Lothrop stated. “We paid for that design. It's a rock-solid design that takes us over the next 50 years.”

Reducing the design could result in costly expansions or retrofits in future years, insisted Lothrop, who blamed the high cost of a new firehouse on state regulations.

“It's unfortunate in the State of New York that 40 percent of that $4.7 million project goes to prevailing wage rates,” he said. “And there's no way we can get around it.

“I think those laws are a hindrance, and who gets beat up? The taxpayer gets beat up.”

In the meantime, Lothrop said the fire department will continue to operate while he and his four fellow fire district commissioners determine how to bring the issue back in front of voters.

“We're going to go on,” he vowed. “We've had a tremendous amount of money we already put into this project.”