Chief Roger Audette says the new station will provide more room for firefighters, trucks, ambulances and other equipment.

Construction is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2017. It will not be finished by the time Augusta’s new multipurpose ladder firetruck is expected to arrive in November.

The city council also deserved criticism when it voted in closed session in November 2013 to acquire a dozen homes to keep the new station on the same Milton Avenue block as the old station, and then kept the decision hidden from affected residents for months. That sparked petitions for direct legislation that the council ignored, triggering a lawsuit that a judge rejected.

Total costs for the new 31,500-square-foot station, including buying properties and relocating residents, was $9 million. Fortunately, instead of demolishing all the homes, two were moved, including a Second Empire-style house built in 1860. The station was finished ahead of schedule, and firefighters moved in during late April.

The building seems cavernous given the handful of firefighters on duty at any time. Yet it was built to accommodate needs for the next 50 years and includes the department's administrative offices. Dorm rooms have three sets of cupboards, bins and lockers because three firefighters sleep in each at differing times. Similarly, the kitchen has three refrigerators. Each shift plans its own meals, and firefighters shop and pay for their own food.

"The other truck was a good truck but it was a 94 model, just getting older, just like everything else," Taylor said. "It has to be updated."

"The fire equipment company we bought it off of in McConnellsville, Finley Fire Equipment, came in and showed us how to pump and operate it," Taylor said. "But it's pretty close to the one we got rid of as far as the operation of the truck itself, and then we've been taking drivers training on it the last month or so to let everybody get familiarized with it, where it's a custom cab."

"We had also bought a brand new boat and we bought a new rescue truck in between times," Taylor said. "and we had been saving our money for the last several years, and we're saving money now for another new truck 10 years down the road."