As part of the district's five-year capital improvement plan, a new headquarters station was envisioned as one of the items to be constructed within the first year. With its goal outlined, the district's only obstacle then became finding a suitable site for the new station. At Monday's regular fire board meeting, Hallman told fire commissioners he had finally located a site close to the geographical center of the district, with easy access to U.S. 98 and with enough space for a training facility as well. The new location is just south of Chat Holley on County Road 393. Hallman said that choice of location could also bring a new sense of awareness to an area where there have been recent residential concerns over crime and safety.
Fire stations are always good neighbors.
Hallman said he had received only one complaint so far about siren noise being a nuisance in the neighborhood and that he had alleviated those concerns by explaining how sirens are used. The firemen do their training exercises and daily tasks from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and after that they are pretty much inside. Sirens are only used when traffic is in the way or there are cars blocking a roadway, so it's not like every time we have a call we will be using sirens. And even then, most of those calls would require us to head south on CR 393, away from the neighborhood, so our sirens would be pointed away from there as well. The site consists of 9.5 acres in a light industrial area across from Martins Building Supply and the Mosquito Control District.