CORNELIA – For the first time in nearly two years, downtown Cornelia has a fire station south of the railroad tracks.
The newly completed Cornelia Fire Department South Station is located on South Main Street at Wyly Street and officially began 24-hour operation at 8 a.m. today.
The building is part of the larger Cornelia Municipal Complex project that saw former city buildings demolished to make way for a new city hall/police department/courtroom and a new fire station, along with accompanying sidewalks along South Main Street. The new facilities were constructed utilizing revenue bonds as a funding source.
After selecting an architect, city leaders went through three different renderings before deciding on the station that now is complete.
“We’re excited that we’re back to full operations on both sides of town,” said City Manager Donald Anderson. “I’m just proud of everybody involved. City crews have helped deliver things to the project to help save money. The fire chief and fire marshal have been here almost every day. I know the firefighters have been here almost every day for the last six months walking the building so they’re familiar with it.”
The four-bay station will house a fire engine, squad and utility vehicle initially, and later will add a county ambulance.
Anderson said city officials are thankful for completion of the new facility.
“We’re a little past schedule,” Anderson said. “I think they broke ground April of 2019, so it’s been basically almost two years of having to run all calls from the North Station, which has been a frightening situation. Luckily, nothing major has happened.”
The new South Station includes six individual bedrooms, a spacious kitchen and dayroom, a quiet room, large training room, fitness center, administrative offices for the fire chief, assistant chief, and fire marshal, as well as a lobby. In the apparatus bays, there is an office where personnel can complete reports.
“I’m always appreciative of the city commissioners who realize and put the faith in us that we can afford to do stuff like this and realize how important it is to the community to have workable facilities, usable facilities,” Anderson said.
Fire Chief Billy Jenkins said he and his personnel are thankful for the new facility.
“It’s really mind-blowing from where we came from,” Jenkins said.
In the former downtown facility, the fire department was part of a three-story building, with trucks downstairs, fire department quarters on the ground floor and the city courtroom/commission chambers upstairs. Now, the fire station is self-contained.
“We are really thankful that we are able to be in our own building, even though we know from time we’ll have different groups come in and be part of this as well,” Jenkins said. “It makes it a whole lot easier that we can have everything under one roof. The technology that has come with this means a whole lot. Also, we have our own fitness center here so we can stay better in shape to serve the community.”
The new facility includes energy-saving features, such as sensors that turn off lights when rooms are not occupied.
“We have a generator that will allow us to maintain using the building even if we lose power or something happened,” Jenkins said.
There also is some redundancy built in that would allow dispatching from the new fire station if needed.
“Along with Habersham Dispatch, we’ll be able to send out different calls if we need to from this same facility,” Jenkins said.
Plans call for an ambulance from Habersham County Emergency Services to be based at the new fire station soon.
“Talking with Director [Chad] Black, he is working diligently trying to get personnel for a fifth med unit,” Jenkins said. “He is working hard to try to accommodate the citizens in this area to be able to have a med unit here 24/7. We’re looking forward to that.”
While the new station will be manned 24/7, Jenkins reminds those who need emergency medical care to dial 9-1-1 rather than come to the station in case crews are out handling another call.
A formal dedication and building naming ceremony will be held at a later date.
