COMMERCIAL POINT – Scioto Township has officially broken ground with its next fire station located at 440 Walker Road in Commerical Point that will serve the community for generations.
Scioto Township trustee John Maynard said that this was an exciting project, “We were able to get the fire levy past, we’ve out we’ve been using an outdated service building over a harsh alley. The community’s growing services requirements are growing, and then to better service our community and our constituents in the traveling public.”
The Levy was passed for 4 million, by area voters.
“With that we were able to go ahead and get the contract under the public bid and award a contract for the new builders, we’ve got a five Bay little over 14,000 square foot station with the service room, and a Community Room.
The Commissioners used a USDA loan of 1.9% to start the build now instead of waiting for all the levy money to come it due to the needed station.
“We were fortunate enough to be able to get funding for this project USDA. So it’s going to help maximize our levy money to keep from going back to the public because USDA has gone finances for about 1.9%. So that’s gonna make our levy money, go even farther, and be able to serve the community better and show that we’re being good stewards of our tax money and trying to be responsible with it, who decided to reach out to the USDA to find that it was a recommendation from our architect,” said Scioto Trustee Ron Jahn.
Scioto Township Fire Chief Cline said, “I’ve been a resident from his 20 years here, and I’ve seen this place explode with growth. I walked in my first day as chief saw a building, the roof was falling in on the inside, it was old, it’s 50 years old. It’s we’ve outgrown the building as a fire department, And our ladies and gentlemen need a place they can live 24 Out of every 72 hours that’s comfortable and safe for them.”
The chief told Sciotopost this new facility is much larger than the old, “We currently have four half bays, we don’t have full bays. This new building will have five drive-thru bays that are over 70 feet long each. So we can drive completely through eliminating backing up into the building, which that’s a danger to begin with backing up big apparatus. Yeah, the size of the building is just under 15,000 square feet with the mezzanine, which is about three times larger than the building we’re in now.”
“It means everything to our guys and girls, we this community went a long time without passing Levy And finally that they entrusted us to do the right thing for this community. With the houses in the area coming in the area, our staff has had to increase to accommodate the increased runs. And we actually had one of our people had to stay in bunk beds because we ran out of room.”
“We did this with the intention of room to grow down the road, we’re going to probably need a ladder truck in five to six years. We have that capacity whether we added or not. We also have extra punks if we need to increase staff. So everything was built with that in mind.”
Construction has already started on the station Commerical Point residents will see construction until around December, then the main building will construct over the summer and they expect to open the doors and service the community by late 2022.
