ROYALTON — After three years of fundraising, a recent six-figure donation has cleared the way for the South Royalton Rescue Squad to build a new home.
The $250,000 gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gets the squad up to its $1.2 million goal to cover the construction and design costs for the planned facility, Dave Kimball, vice chairman of the rescue squad’s advisory board, said in an interview last week.
The Rescue Squad has secured a lease agreement with the town of Royalton to build the facility on a property next to the town offices. It also has site plans, architectural plans and is in the process of securing a state Act 250 permit. Act 250 is Vermont’s land use and development law.
The proposed 3,400-square-foot facility will include offices, bedrooms, a kitchen and a two-bay garage, according to the Act 250 permit application.
The impetus for the project was to meet crew needs and recruit and retain staff and “this is going to do it,” Kimball said.
The rescue squad currently rents a house space on the corner of Safford Street where staff members stay when on duty. The current house is less than 1,000 square feet, which is only room enough for a small kitchen, sleeping quarters and a small area for storage. The rescue squad also rents a bay at the nearby Royalton fire station, but it lacks storage space.
The donation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came after a rescue squad board member approached the overseers of the nearby Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon, which honors the church’s founder, to ask for its support.
No one expected such a large gift, Kimball said.
“Supporting the rescue squad’s new facility felt like a meaningful way to strengthen emergency response for the wider community and express our appreciation for those who provide essential services,” Kristen LaJeunesse, spokeswoman for the Northern New England region of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in an email.
The South Royalton Rescue Squad provides ambulance service in Royalton, Sharon, Tunbridge and a portion of Interstate 89, as well as mutual aid to other towns. There are currently 22 staff on the roster who respond to about 475 calls per year and run one ambulance.
A key factor for the church is that the rescue squad responds to emergencies at the memorial or for individuals who come to the Upper Valley to visit the site, LaJeunesse said.
This kind of donation outside of a specific service project is “fairly common” for the church and is “part of our global humanitarian and community outreach efforts,” she said.
The rescue squad also has raised $300,000 from individuals, foundations and businesses, and $650,000 from the federal government, Kimball said.
Meeting the fundraising goal checks one of the final boxes for the project.
The rescue squad has been discussing new quarters for many years, but the project was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. The advisory board started the current fundraising campaign about three years ago after talking to the crew about its specific needs, Kimball said.
The rescue squad has struggled with staffing and last year had to temporarily “go out of service due to lack of staffing” multiple times, according to the 2025 Royalton Town Report.
The construction project could face a potential delay from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will administer the congressionally directed spending allocation, because of staffing reductions in the department. “They have fewer employees to process the paperwork, but all of the other money is in hand,” Kimball said.
If all goes well, Kimball said the project will go out to bid before the end of the year and construction will start next spring.
Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.
