April 18, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
Should a portion of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) grant funding be allocated to build a new three bay Liberty/Dowelltown fire hall to improve fire and EMS services in the western portion of the county?
The county commission will soon be asked to consider it based on a proposal by county Fire Chief Donny Green.
Under the plan, Chief Green said the current Liberty Fire Hall located in downtown Liberty would be replaced by a new Liberty/Dowelltown Fire Hall to be constructed on an 8.65 acre site formerly known as the old Liberty/Dowelltown Park off Highway 70 on West Main Street, owned by both municipalities, which is no longer in use. Chief Green said the site is not in a flood plain and is quite suitable for a fire hall. Chief Green said he believes such a facility could be built for less than $300,000 using American Rescue Plan Act funding. The boards of mayor and aldermen in both towns have been consulted about the idea and have embraced it with the possibility of entering into a 99 year lease agreement with the county for a dollar, should the county be willing to make such a deal. The county has a similar lease arrangement in place with a landowner where the Austin Bottoms Community Fire Hall is located.
Green said the idea for a new fire hall arose recently after it was discovered that the existing fire station at Liberty is not big enough, both in height and lengthwise, to adequately house the newest fire truck, a 2021 model freightliner demo truck, assigned to that location. Plus, Green said the county is going to have to make some needed asphalt repairs in the front of the Liberty Fire Hall if it is to remain in operation.
“We started out with the whole idea of wanting to request a new station after we got the new fire engine in Liberty under the Rural Development Grant. The new truck fits in the fire hall but its very tight and we have to make sure the truck is loaded with water before we can back it through the bay because of the height limitations on the bay door. Even with it full of water we only have a one inch clearance on the height and when the truck is backed in the front bumper is against the door so you have to raise the door to get in the truck. The Liberty Fire Hall building was constructed in 1975 and at the time our fire trucks were a lot smaller. Today, fire trucks are being built bigger so its simply not adequate for us to house this new fire truck at the existing Liberty Fire Hall or any that we may get in the future because the new ones are going to be tight in there,” said Chief Green.
It also makes more sense to put funds toward a new fire hall rather than to spend money on the existing Liberty station, according to Green.
“We looked at doing some asphalt repair there where it has sunken in front of the fire hall and we have some money in the budget to do that but when this ARP money came about we felt like it would be better to find another site for a new fire hall rather than spend a lot of money on a 47 year old station that will need five or six thousand dollars worth of asphalt work in front of it,” Chief Green continued.
A new larger fire hall could also better serve especially the western portion of the county including the greater Dowelltown, Liberty, and Alexandria areas (first and second districts) by housing not only a fire truck but a tanker truck and possibly a day truck ambulance, should the county commission decide to approve such a proposal. According to the 2020 Census, 5,551 of the county’s 20,080 total population resides in the first and second districts.
The county currently has one tanker truck, centrally located at the main station on King Ridge Road, but another tanker is coming this summer funded largely under a Community Development Block Grant.
“When you get outside the city limits of Dowelltown, Liberty, and Alexandria, we just have very few hydrants so we need a tanker down there. Currently we have one tanker that serves the whole county and we have it in the center part of the county but if we had another one in the western end of the county that would give us a quicker response time and provide more water supply,” said Chief Green.
A new Liberty/Dowelltown Fire Hall could also serve as an EMS satellite station.
“As we were considering the proposal for a new two bay fire hall, we got the idea for including a third bay to provide an option for the EMS to house a satellite station for one of their day truck ambulances at least weekdays to provide emergency services . Adding the third bay would not be too much more expensive than a two bay fire hall, and it would cut response time in half on an emergency call in the western portion of the county. At the back of the third bay could be a small sitting area maybe with a couch, chair, TV, and a place for EMS personnel to do their paper work. With 450 students at DeKalb West School during the week; along with the three towns of Dowelltown, Liberty, and Alexandria, and the rural population, it really makes sense to have an EMS satellite station there. EMS currently has three trucks on staff during the day time so it would not require any additional personnel or ambulances to operate it,” said Chief Green.
Plans are also still in the making for future development of a fire station in the Wolf Creek community. A total of $75,000 in seed money has been set aside by the county commission for the project but as yet no location has been selected for a fire hall there and not enough volunteers have committed to help staff it.
“The Wolf Creek Station is not off the radar, said Chief Green. We are still looking to do that. The reason we want to do this project (Liberty/Dowelltown Fire Hall) ahead of Wolf Creek is because we have ARP money and a building site for it and this fire hall would add more benefit right now than just building one station because it allows us to put the tanker down there and an EMS satellite station so we are looking at a bigger picture and we have trained firefighters there. I don’t yet have but one fire fighter at Wolf Creek and we do not yet have a site identified. The county set aside $25,000 in the 2020-21 budget year for Wolf Creek and another $25,000 in 2021-22. I also added $25,000 out of the sale of fire department surplus equipment so we have $75,000 setting there obligated to Wolf Creek. We still have to identify a building site centrally and strategically located there to provide the biggest five mile coverage area so people can get the benefit on their homeowners insurance premium,” said Chief Green.