Officials in Exeter Township are considering building a new, centralized fire station — again.
The idea of constructing a new fire station in the township is an old one. As Deputy Fire Chief Chris Jordan said during a presentation to the township’s board of supervisors at a meeting Monday, it was first floated nearly three decades ago.
Back in May of 1994, the supervisors approved the concept of building a new station in a central location in the township. But budget challenges saw the potential project fall by the wayside, Jordan said.
It was revived in early 2012, with township officials receptive to the idea of helping to create a new home for the Exeter Township Fire Department, which had been created three years prior through the merging of the Reiffton and Stonersville fire companies.
Discussions about the project continued until 2016, Jordan said, but it never materialized.
Now, seven years later, efforts to finally get the project done are back once again.
Jordan provided the supervisors with a brief, conceptual presentation about the potential new fire station on Monday. He said it would be a facility that would allow the fire department to provide improved around-the-clock fire protection to the community.
The fire department uses two stations — in Reiffton and Stonersville — to cover the 27 square miles of the township and St. Lawrence. A total of 80 active members respond to more than 1,200 calls per year, serving about 29,000 residents.
But the space at the existing stations is too small and old, Jordan said, and neither the township nor the fire department own the properties.
“The current facilities we have are extremely outdated,” he told the supervisors.
To address that, the department is proposing construction of a 20,000-square-foot station where the township’s current K-9 training station sits, across Gibraltar Road from the municipal building. It would provide space for the fire department and EMS services.
It would have space for a tower ladder truck and two rescue engines. A reserve rescue engine would be kept at Reiffton, while a tanker truck would be housed at the more rural Stonersville site, Jordan said.
The new station would include training facilities and a community meeting area that could accommodate up to 70 people.
Jordan said it is estimated that the construction cost would be somewhere between $10 million and $15 million.
So far, the fire department has raised and set aside $428,000 for the project, and the township has $1.1 million in a municipal complex fund that could be used for it. Jordan said there’s another $5 million available through the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant program.
As for the rest of the funding needed, Jordan suggested naming rights to the building and particular rooms inside of it could be sold to local businesses. Or, money could be raised by selling commemorative bricks or pavers to community members.
While he acknowledged that the cost of building a fire station is high, Jordan said it is well worth the cost. In particular, he said, its location will help reduce response times to about half of the township’s residents.
Response times would be lowered for basically anywhere east of the Exeter Commons housing development, Jordan said. For example, firefighters would be able to respond to the Colony Hill or Grist Mill Farms and Country Club Estates housing developments about five minutes faster than they can today.
“As many of the people in the audience know, that’s huge when you’re talking about a fire scene,” he said at the meeting.
The supervisors were generally supportive of the proposal, agreeing to place the topic on their agenda for discussion at an upcoming meeting.
The supervisors also said Jordan’s presentation will be made available on the township’s website at exetertownship.com.
Source: Berkshire mont