The Bowerston (OH) Volunteer Fire Department is currently working with Diversified Engineering of New Philadelphia to finish the design of a $1 million addition to its Main Street station and will then begin looking for a contractor for the work, reports timesreporter.com.

The work, which is expected to begin in the next couple of months, will double the size of the station, officials say.

The 60’-by-100’ addition will have three bays. One will be used to house the department’s new tanker truck, which is expected to arrive in August; a second will be used by Bowerston’s dive team; and the third will allow for future growth. It will also have space for two new offices, a commercial kitchen, and public restrooms.

The current building will be remodeled to include a community hall which can be used to host events, meetings, and classroom sessions, officials say. An official notes that the project will result in no new taxes.

A walkthrough of the new addition can be seen here.

The Osawatomie (FL) Volunteer Fire Department, Miami County Emergency Medical Services, and Fontana Fire Department have recently received a new tanker, ambulance, and pumper, respectively, reports republic-online.com.

The 3,000-gallon tanker cost about $257,000 and is a Class A pumper, while the new ambulance is a Braun Chief XL on a 2021 Ford E-450 chassis. The county used CARES Act federal funding to purchase the ambulance, which cost $249,760.

The pumper comes with a 1,000-gallon tank and a small foam tank, and cost a little over $300,000.

After more than a decade’s worth of futility, plans for a station in Haiku (HI) have started up again, reports mauinews.com.

Four sites within a five-mile radius of Haiku’s busiest concentration of calls are being considered: Site A near Hana Highway and Nahele Road; Site B near Hana Highway and East Kuiaha Road; Site C on East Kuiaha Road; and Site D at North/South Holokai Road.

Site B, the original proposed site which stalled after community concerns, remains the most feasible site for a potential station, according to a study commissioned by the county.

In 2007, the county purchased the approximately six-acre Hana Highway and East Kuiaha Road parcel to build on. However, plans stalled after community members voiced concerns about the location and some of the project features, including wind turbines, a helipad, and a storage structure, according to officials.

If the county moves forward with Site B, the cost has already increased from about $11 million in the mid-2000s to about $17.5 million due to rising construction prices and other changes, according to officials. Site B would require a few years to complete if selected, consultants said. If other sites are chosen it would take even longer.

The first piece of equipment that the Watertown (NY) Fire Department ever owned—a 1952 pumper, Engine 77—is now back from a refurbishment project that started six years ago and is sitting in the department’s station, reports nny360.com.

For the past two years, the apparatus was in the town of Louisville in St. Lawrence County, where it went through an extensive bodywork and paint job—funded by donations. Recently, the eight-cylinder, gas-driven, 14,900-mile-having Lincoln engine was towed back to the station.

The pumper was in service for about 20 years before it was taken off the road during the early 1970s. Then, for about a dozen or so years, it sat on Brian J. Kehoe’s family farm in Sandy Creek, where it was used to irrigate his strawberries for a few years until it was retired after the farm was turned into a Christmas tree-growing business.

Its next calls will be for showcases in parades and other such events.

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