HOMER — The full Banks County Commission has signed off on the emergency replacement for a leased fire station the county is losing next month.
“Our Station 42, which is Nails Creek over off Highway 63 near the intersection of 51 North, that was a leased property there,” Banks County Fire/EMS Chief Steve Nichols told AccessWDUN Tuesday night. “The lease came up and the negotiations didn’t work out with the property owner and they’ve asked us to vacate it. We have until Sept. 28 to move out of the property.”
The station, located across Ga. 63 from Nails Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, is a two-bay block building.
“Fortunately, two and a half miles to the east of that location on 63 we owned a small tract of land that had been bought for a water tank,” Nichols said. “The water tank’s not going to be built there. It was decided later it wasn’t going to be built, so we were able to use that piece of land to put another structure on it for a fire station.”
Because of the location of the new property, Nichols said relocating the fire station will not affect property insurance for homeowners or businesses.
“That will allow us to have the same response area,” Nichols said. “We’ve still got our coverage for ISO there, so we’re just moving forward with that as an emergency purchase to make sure we keep our ISO coverage there.”
The reason for the emergency purchase of the building, done outside the normal advertising procedure for bids, is to ensure uninterrupted fire protection for people in that part of Banks County. Extended delivery time for the pre-engineered metal building could mean the county doesn’t have its own facility ready by the time it has to vacate the current Station 42.
“It’s going to be close,” Nichols said. “We’ve made some arrangements with some property owners in the vicinity there that’s going to allow us to house a truck just for a few weeks if we need to, so all the provisions have been made that we either make sure we make the deadline or close to it.”
Chairman Jimmy Hooper signed the order for the pre-engineered metal building, and due to the amount of money the commission ratified that decision Tuesday night.
The building will be 30 feet wide, 36 feet deep and 14 feet tall at the eave and is being purchased from DCI Metal Buildings in Gainesville. Cost of erecting the building is $35,880, and the money will come from the county’s 2012 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
The county will have to add the bay doors, electrical installation and heat, but those are the only additions foreseen, according to Nichols.
“It will be just a volunteer station,” Nichols said. “It will have power and water, but no living quarters in it.”
Loss of the leased facility comes at a time when the county already has two new fire station projects underway, one a replacement and the second an additional station.
Grading has begun for the new Station 25 at Grace Point on Old Highway 441 south of Baldwin. The commission will discuss giving Nichols permission to request bids for that station during a called meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 16.
Once completed, Station 25 will house the medical crew currently based at Station 21 in Hollingsworth, as well as the new position approved Tuesday night due to discontinuation of the fire protection contract with Baldwin Fire Department that was effective July 1.
The county recently negotiated for property to replace Station 41 in the Grady/Damascus area.
Also during Tuesday night’s meeting, the commission approved spending $22,580 with Stratton & Sons Contracting Inc., of Canon to pave the parking lot at Station 22, known as Rock Springs. That station is located on the hill across from Katfish Korner on Yonah-Homer Road.
