Godfrey Fire Protection District hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday to celebrate the start of construction on the village’s new fire station and administration building project at 3023 Godfrey Road, thetelegraph.com reported. 

Voters approved a $7.5 million bond issue in April 2021 to construct the new station on the former site of the Hi Way House and consolidate current Stations 1 and 2, the report said.

The 15,000-square-foot facility will serve as the replacement of the district’s two existing fire stations which lack adequate space for modern fire and emergency service vehicles and equipment, according to the report. Officials said relocating Godfrey’s fire services into a single building, with all equipment housed in one central location, will allow for better emergency response and more efficient manpower allocation.

The Roxbury (NJ) Township has decided to buy a $1.8 million Pierce ladder truck for Roxbury Fire Company 1, and delivery should take place before year’s end, said Roxbury Township Manager John Shepherd, tapinto.net reported.

Instead of ordering a new truck to be built from scratch, the township opted to buy one already in production. Doing so will save money and get delivered a lot sooner, Shepherd said, according to the report.

The new vehicle will be a Pierce Ascendant 100-foot Heavy-Duty Aerial Tower.

The $1.8 million is $200,000 more than Roxbury budgeted for a new truck, but Shepherd said the town has the extra cash in its fund balance. He noted the price of new trucks “continues to go up,” and contended $1.8 million “is considered last year’s pricing,” the report said.

The 100-foot, mid-mount tower truck will be painted yellow by Pierce. It will replace Company 1’s two yellow ladder trucks, Engine 11 and Engine 14. Purchased by the township in the late 1990s, these vehicles have become difficult to maintain and repair, according to the report.

Roxbury will sell the old trucks, but the township doesn’t expect to get a lot of money for them. One town official said a 25-year-old fire truck is likely to be worth less than $30,000, the report said.

With plans underway to build a new hospital to replace the Zambarano unit of Eleanor Slater Hospital, the Pascoag Fire District is asking state officials to include an extra $2 million in the budget for a new structure on the campus to house fire equipment, nrinow.news reported.

PFD Fire Commission Chairman Christopher Toti asked for support of the initiative from the Burrillville Town Council last week, noting that Sen. Jessica de la Cruz is submitting the request for funding, the report said.

Toti said that fire trucks have long been located on the property, both for convenience – and historically to bring down insurance rates for both the hospital and surrounding residents, according to the report.

Around 20 years ago, hospital maintenance built a garage to house a fire truck, the report said. Toti said that garage lacks heat and the foundation is cracking and sinking.

The Wallum Lake district is now in the Pascoag Fire District, and without the outpost at Zambarano, the closest station to the hospital would be 4.5 miles away, the report said.

The Lebanon (OR) Fire District posted this press release on its website Feb. 15:

A crowd of about 50 gathered on a cold, Valentine’s Day afternoon to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Station 31. (The ceremony was held at 1050 West Oak Street in Lebanon, the project site.)

Fire Chief Joseph Rodondi spoke about the community support that has been instrumental in moving this project forward, and thanked various District members and elected officials for their work on the project. Principal Architect Gunnar Gladics of Rice Fergus Miller and Jordan Fell, VP of Operations for Emerick Construction also spoke about the project.

Before “turning dirt,” Board of Directors Member Dale White talked about the history of Station 31, and what it meant to him to be one of the first firefighters to operate out of the old Station 31 building in the 1970s. He shared that they used to get “slammed with up to three or four calls a shift,” drawing a chuckle from the crowd. The Lebanon Fire District averaged over 18 calls per 24-hour shift in 2022. 

Community members were invited to stay after the ceremony and ask questions about the project, which many did. Chief Rodondi finished the ceremony with an invitation to come back this time next year for the grand opening. 

The new fire station is funded by a $16 million general obligation bond Lebanon voters passed in 2019. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2024.