The town has been working toward a solution for years, and this fall, ground will finally be broken on a new bay for Humarock’s fire apparatus. Renovations for the rest of the building, however, are still up in the air, and Murphy hopes a new grant from the state could help push the need into the forefront.

“Hopefully by next fall, we’ll be doing something with this building,” he said. “It looks like it makes more and more sense to replace this building instead of renovating.”

The state recently set aside $100,000 to support renovating the building. On top of $50,000 approved by town meeting this spring, Murphy says they’re about halfway to what it would cost to put up a new building. In contrast to the millions needed for the safety complex, Murphy wants to put up a two-bedroom prefabricated house in Humarock that he expects to cost about $300,000.

Beatrice Fire and Rescue moved into its current station in the lower level of the city’s Municipal Building in 1965. Since that time the ambulance service has been added and Daake noted that fire and rescue vehicles are considerably larger and heavier than they were more than six decades ago.

In fact, he said most fire stations now require at least an 8-inch thick concrete floor to support the weight of modern vehicles while the Beatrice station is still just a 6-inch floor.

In the current station, emergency vehicles are parked several cars deep with little space in between which Daake admitted could create a small delay in response time in certain situations. 

City council is scheduled to vote next week on whether to begin a five-year lease for 12 new radios, which will be issued to Chief Bell and the department’s assistant chiefs. The total cost will be about $70,000, Bell said.  

The department uses 800 Mhz radios to communicate with county officials, and separate lower-band radios to talk to each other.