The town of Brattleboro needs to understand the value of actually having an ongoing maintenance and repair budget and long-term improvement/enhancement plan to address its aging infrastructure, instead of waiting for a problem to occur.
There are fire stations in New England that are much, much older than Brattleboro's, and they continue to operate efficiently. The key is preventative maintenance planning.
Putting off repairs and maintenance is not the answer. However, if a new facility is going to be built, it needs to be well planned to include future expansion opportunities and growth of the emergency services for the town.
Proper design and planning will help minimize future issues and problems and will make a facility as energy efficient as possible. It should be centrally located so response times can be optimized, as the location of any new facility will be critical for the community.
So think about having to cross bridges (also not well maintained these days!) that could be another problem in the future.