Hatfield Township commissioners have voted unanimously to commit $1.5 million during the next 15 years to the fire company, a move officials said is meant to trigger the process of constructing a new fire station.
"We are able to provide this funding, for the next 15 years, without jeopardizing at all the needs of the Hatfield Fire Company, or the contribution to the day to day needs of both fire companies," said commissioners' President Tom Zipfel.
Over the past several years, Hatfield has set up a fire commission dedicated to identifying short- and long-term needs for both the Hatfield and Colmar fire companies, and allocating funds to do so. The township's fire tax millage currently generates roughly $520,000 of revenue each year, and of that total $320,000 is split between the two companies for operational needs and the remaining $200,000 each year is put into a capital reserve fund.
Last year, the company and township began talks in earnest about a future Colmar fire station, to be built on the same site as the current station on Walnut Street. Zipfel and fire company President Brian Seward said that station was largely built in the 1940s with the most recent renovations in the 1960s.
In their initial talks, the company had developed an estimate of roughly $3 million to construct a new station. Since then, Zipfel and Sward told the commissioners Nov. 16, that estimated price tag has been whittled down to roughly $2.8 million, and the company is already starting to plan how to offset its part of those costs.