The New Hope Volunteer Fire Department is moving to a larger building and a new location, partially to meet growing needs and partially to escape what many in the area call a “nightmare” — traffic congestion on New Hope Road during the school year.
The new station, currently under construction on Stadium Road beside the New Hope Community Center, will not only be twice the size of the old station, but it will also feature amenities the volunteer firefighters do not currently have, including four truck bays, a training room, full bathrooms with showers and a fully equipped kitchen.
The metal-frame building, slated for completion in September, is approximately 7,000 square feet and will cost between $160,000 and $170,000 to construct, according to Fire Chief Bill McCord, who heads five stations in District 3, including the New Hope station. Additional room is available for expansion upstairs.
Although the 12 volunteer firefighters assigned to the station do not currently stay on the premises, McCord planned the new station with the future in mind. The idea of round-the-clock shifts is something that has been bandied about, but he said so far, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors has not approved funding for it.
The building could also be used to temporarily shelter victims of storms during the aftermath of cleanup and recovery.
The greatest advantage to the new location is decreasing response time, McCord said. Currently, the New Hope station covers nearly 100 square miles and responds to 54 percent of all county fire calls. The average time between a call placed and a truck leaving the station is five to seven minutes, but if firefighters were staffed on the premises, McCord said response time could drop to one minute.
But simply moving away from New Hope”s K-12 school campus will help save time significantly, he said.
Back in 1974, when the New Hope Road building was constructed, the total enrollment of the schools was less than 2,000 students, but over the years, it has crept as high as 3,200, according to Lowndes County School District Superintendent Mike Halford. Current combined enrollment is 2,300.
“School traffic is such that in the early-morning hours and after, we can”t even get to the station because of the traffic,” McCord said. “On more than one occasion, I”ve had to wait in line to get to the station, and once we get to the station, it”s difficult to get the (trucks) out … It could mean a difference between saving a life and not saving a life.”
The Lowndes County School District provided the land for the new fire station, so once the department moves to Stadium Road, Halford said the 3,000-square-foot building could be used for maintenance or to provide a dressing area for the girls” softball team.
The LCSD agreed last year to swap three acres of land on Stadium Road to the county so they could construct a new volunteer fire station and community center.
However, even as McCord plans for the future, he knows he may face a new problem a few decades from now: The county school district has long-range plans to move New Hope High School from its present location to 60 empty acres on the north side of the football field — near the new fire department.
Halford said there are no plans to do that any time soon though, especially with enrollment rates for the New Hope campus showing a downward trend.
According to County Fire Administrator Sammy Fondren, the construction of the new station is not expected to alter District 3”s state fire rating, meaning homeowners in the area will not enjoy a decrease in their fire protection insurance. The district is currently rated as a Class 8, on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the best.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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