Simon Properties, which owns Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square, announced in November 2017 plans to open a hotel, restaurant, office tower and fitness center, which will require demolishing the Belk store. The fire station is located under the Belk parking deck.

The station will be 10,000 square feet and “state of the art,” Interim Fire Chief Randall Slaughter announced at the March 29 Buckhead Business Association meeting.

There will still be three bays for vehicles to be stored, Slaughter said. The department plans to keep an engine, truck and a battalion chief vehicle, which is typically an SUV or pick-up truck, at the station, he said.

If the hall was constructed as a city asset, the city would be responsible for 100 percent of the bonding, and then charge rent to the partners.

One area where costs could be cut would be the bedrooms in the station. St. Martin said they are useful even for a volunteer department, but they could be cut if necessary.

St. Martin said he'd like to see the volunteer model continue for as long as possible.

"That's the most efficient way to run a fire department," St. Martin said.

The station would be designed as a 40- or 50-year station, including needs for a fulltime department.

At the present time Marcus Firefighters/EMTs are engaged in a fund raising effort, dedicated to replacing its current 2009 Ambulance. A new ambulance will cost in the area of $190,000. The existing ambulance will be converted to a backup ambulance/equipment truck, further fortifying their emergency services.

To help maintain the high quality pre-hospital care you have grown accustomed to, the department, with the help of yearly contributions from the Cherokee County Board of Supervisors, has carefully set aside over $110,000 for a new ambulance purchase. 

Matthew Alexander Vancamp, 30, of Manassas, is also charged with reckless driving. He was indicted by a Stafford grand jury earlier this month and was arraigned Wednesday in Stafford Circuit Court, where his trial is set for Aug. 8–10.

Samantha Lehmann, 47, of Culpeper, died March 7 at Mary Washington Hospital. She was being transported to a medical facility the morning of Feb. 27 when the private ambulance driven by Vancamp crashed into the back of a tanker truck on southbound U.S. 17 and Hartwood Road.

An affidavit for a search warrant filed by Stafford Deputy 1st Class J.P. Aubry states that Vancamp was traveling 60 mph when he struck the rear of the tanker. According to the search warrant, Vancamp told police that he couldn’t see the tanker until it was too late because he was blinded by the sun.

Safety-Service Director Dan Given said bids for the city’s new east side fire station, which is expected to be built at the corner of Missouri Avenue and Garfield Boulevard, will go out Wednesday and will take about 30 days to get back.

“From there it’s going through them,” he said. “But it’s our intention to break ground on the new station early this summer.”

Given said a new west side station, which is at 2111 West Park Drive, is about two or three months behind its east side counterpart but it won’t be built at its current location.

Instead, Given said, it likely will be moved further west near the intersection of Kolbe Road and West Erie Avenue.

“We’re tentatively thinking it will be in that corridor but there are still soil samples and things like that we have to take. We want to make sure the land can have that kind of facility before we commit,” he said.