Fire Chief Tony Trovao said they got the new truck because they needed to get their gallon per minute flow up to standard.

They have retired their mini pumper and now have two engines including the new one.

"With two engines pumping 1,250 gallons a minute each, that should meet the need in the growing community. It's just awesome because we now have 42 members, and need to be able to move them all."

The fire chief added they continue to move forward with plans to construct a second fire hall in the area.

Officials say the Town of Huntersville have declined to continue funding the North Mecklenburg Rescue Squad.

In a meeting with town officials, Town Manager Greg Ferguson announced that the closure was made to "align public safety leadership," according to the press release. North Mecklenburg Rescue Squad has an annual operating budget of $447,000. Of that budget, $374,000 were received from the Town of Huntersville, said the press release.

That's right, the traditional pole that firefighters slide down on their way to an emergency call. Fire Station No. 1 will have two of them. Padding on the ground floor will protect people, who are sometimes groggy from waking up, from injuring themselves. "It's the fastest way to get downstairs," Bowen said.

The old station on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was built in the 1950s and the design limited some of the more advanced capabilities available today. One of the biggest improvements to the new fire station is the enhanced technology, Bowen said. They're going from chalkboards to Smart boards, and from spotty connection to a strong WiFi connection throughout the building.

 

"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.