While county commissioners agreed Tuesday night to purchase a $450,000 site for the Laurel Canyon area station, there is no plan at this time for a downtown Canton fire station.

County Manager Jerry Cooper told commissioners at their meeting Tuesday night that the former downtown station would not be used when the county consolidation is complete at the first of the year.

Cooper said Chief Prather and his team have a plan of action to provide services without the Canton station in use, but he did not give specifics of the plan.

The downtown fire station on East Main Street in the former Post Office building has issues with asbestos abatement among other problems, county officials said.

The county had planned to lease the building from Canton for five years, and officials say that could still happen, but not without the city making significant improvements to the station.

“Per the Intergovernmental Agreement, the downtown fire station was only going to be ‘leased’ by Cherokee County, with the city of Canton maintaining ownership,” Cherokee Fire Chief Tim Prather told the Tribune Wednesday. “In a nutshell, the building is in need of significant repair and updates.”

Prather said although there have been some repair/upgrades to the building, it still has some asbestos abatement pending as well as leaks to the building needing repaired.

"Finally, we'll have a new fire house that meets the needs of our department and that our citizens can afford to pay for," Mayor Frank Catalina said of the long-awaited facility to be built on a one-acre lot at the centrally-located corner of Main and South Broad streets.

Catalina said the need for a new firehouse had been talked about for 20 years because of the deteriorating conditions of the current facilities, some of which are more than a century old.

The city charter authorizes 100 volunteers for each of Peekskill's six companies and Catalina said there was a time when there were waiting lists to join. Now, he said, the there are a total of 100 volunteers qualified for interior fire attacks, along with 24 paid firefighters.

The new vehicle is a 2016 Freightliner four-wheel drive chassis, outfitted with a 1,000 gallon water tank and a pump with foam capability.

The vehicle can serve in multiple roles bit its primary purpose is fighting wildland fires.

“It is good to have dependable equipment that doesn’t require continuous investment in repairs,” said Blackwell VFD Chief Randy Pieper. “This tender will be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

Blackwell VFD was established in 1959 and its 40 volunteers serve approximately 15,000 residents over 754 square miles in Nolan County.

“We appreciate Texas A&M Forest Service having grant programs that are such a great benefit to small departments like ours,” said Pieper.

Texas A&M Forest Service is committed to protecting lives and property through the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program, a cost-share program funded by Texas State Legislature and administered by Texas A&M Forest Service. 

 He said it would allow the county fire department to better protect homes in the county against brush and grass fires. Chief Endsley said more and more new homes were being built in the county that were large ones, 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. He said the new truck included an auxiliary pump on top. Chief Endsley said the Class A pumper could carry 1,000 gallons of water. He called the truck a game changer for the county fire depart. He said the truck would require 90 days to be built. The chassis and cab are pre-built. Chief Endsley said the county would be able to design the back end of the vehicle to be built just the way they want. He said the truck would be the first custom built Class A pumper that the county had ever owned. Chief Endsley said the truck should last 20 years. The cost for the fire truck is $433,000.