Lee County will get new fire station

LEESBURG — After weeks of discussion that sometimes grew heated, it appears that the north end of Lee County will get its long-awaited EMS/fire station.

Lee County commissioners have been battling over the need for a station in the sparcely populated rural area for nearly two decades, but on Tuesday commissioners supporting the station prevailed.

After scouting a few potential locations, county officials say the best place for the new station will be on Georgia Highway 195.

“Although no official vote was taken, the commissioners will (pass the measure) through the budget next week,” said County Co-Manager Christi Dockery.

The commission’s chairman said he’s happy with the outcome of Tuesday’s decision.

“I’d like to see it open tomorrow,” said Dennis Roland, who serves as chairman of the board and represents District 1, where the new station will be located.

Lee County Public Safety Director Wesley Wells said it will take about six months to get the station up and running.

“Right now, it’s just a shell of a building,” Dockery said. “We need to talk to the landowners to see about putting in a 16-foot trailer. We will need to buy furnishings and equipment.”

Plans are to use one of three ambulances the county currently has in reserve at the new station and to purchase a firetruck for the location.

“We have extra ambulances,” Dockery said. “If we order a new firetruck, it will take about a year to get one. We have the go-ahead to start looking for a truck. The plan is to get just a basic firetruck, not a quint, which is the more expensive ladder truck.”

The estimated cost for the firetruck is around $275,000, while the cost for a new ladder truck would be about $700,000, Dockery said. With equipment, officials say the cost of a basic firetruck will run about $350,000.

“We need both, but I would rather have a firetruck than an ambulance,” Wells said.

“We might just have to go with the ambulance until we can get a firetruck,” Roland conceded.

Safety Director Wells presented commissioners with a basic three-year plan for the new station. During the first year, the plan calls for purchasing two new firetrucks, adding six employees and a part-time Fire and Prevention Education officer. Two of the employees would be assigned to already operating Fire Station No. 1, and the others would go to the new station. Year one also calls for the purchase of a rescue boat.

Wells estimates about $30,000 a year would be paid to part-timers at a rate of $10.76 per hour. Full-time EMS employees would be paid a set salary at a higher rate, based on experience.

The second year calls for constructing of a training facility, purchasing a ladder firetruck, relocating the Palmyra fire station and having all emergency service workers cross-trained to respond to both medical and fire-related emergencies. By the third year, Wells proposed adding a fire inspector and opening one more fire station.

Wells included photos and schematics for the proposed fire training center in a packet of information presented to county commissioners. The design is for a 3 1/2-story training tower similar to buildings constructed in Clint, Tevas and Fargo, N.D.

The training center would cost an estimated $163,024 in materials, $140, 512.51 in labor, $32,000 for the foundation and $8,862 for freight and shipment of materials for a total estimated cost of $344,398.51, Wells said.

“In years past, Dougherty County said we could use their training facilities for our employees,” Commissioner Billy Mathis suggested.

Wells said that is no longer an option.

“Right now, we can’t use it and neither can they,” he said. “It has severe tornado damage, and they have a consultant coming in to tell them if it can be fixed or if the building needs to be torn down. I am proposing that we build our own training facilities during year two.”

The majority of county commissioners responded favorably to the basic three-year plan presented by Wells.

Meanwhile, Mathis said time was of the essence in order to get the immediate specifics and preliminary costs to open the new station into the 2018 budget, which is set for final approval next Tuesday.

“I favor everything in the plan, but not necessarily in that order,” he said. “Obviously, we can’t do all that is on this list tonight, but at least we can get started.”

Mathis has been a strong advocate for the emergency station for the past two decades. Not so with Commissioner Luke Singletary, who said that a new station is not needed in the north end of the county..

“Well, gentlemen, I guess we will have to just agree to disagree,” Singletary said. “What are we voting on? Before putting it in the budget, I need clarity if we are agreeing to spend $350,000 on one truck or are we buying two firetrucks as outlined in the proposed three-year plan?”

Mathis responded.

“What I am hearing is that we plan to open a new station on Highway 195,” he said. “We are looking for and planning to buy one basic firetruck, and we are going to put an ambulance we already have in reserve at the new station. We are not voting on it tonight, but we will work out the details in the budget for next week.”

Final approval of the FY 2018 budget is scheduled for Tuesday night at 6 p.m. during the commission’s regularly scheduled meeting.