Chilmark will call a special town meeting in March to ask voters for additional funds for the multi-million dollar project to build a new firehouse and Tri-town ambulance building.

The meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 26 at noon.

The project will build two public safety buildings in a campus-style format at 399 Middle Road. Voters approved $11 million for the project at last year’s town meeting in May. Recent cost estimates have shown the project will actually cost over $12 million.

“If you’ve done or seen anything that’s gone on subsequent to the pandemic in construction, whether it’s household or industrial or municipal, the cost of everything, between inflation, scarce supply, scarce labor, et cetera, has gone up astronomically,” selectman James Malkin said.

The request to voters can’t wait until the upcoming April town meeting because the town is on a strict legal timeline to sign a contract with a builder for the project, according to town administrator Tim Carroll. The town received four bids and intends to award the contract to Dellbrook, an East Falmouth-based construction company.

“The contractor has a good reputation for doing work around the state and on Martha’s Vineyard,” selectman Bill Rossi said.

Chilmark will split the cost of the ambulance building with the two other up-Island towns. The three towns have agreed on a formula to bond the expenses, splitting costs equally for that construction. The firehouse will be paid for entirely by Chilmark.

Weather and Covid constraints leave the exact location of the meeting up in the air.

“With the snow conditions and all the other things that might be going on, I think the board of health, if we open all the windows at noontime on a Saturday, would let us use the [Chilmark] Community Center. But we’ll have to ask,” Mr. Carroll said.