By Sarrah Peters, News Editor
Last November, the City of Attalla purchased a new fire truck, and plans are now underway to build a new place to park it.
On Tuesday, March 6, the City of Attalla broke ground on a new fire station located on the corner of Burke Avenue and Jones Street.
The city has been working on plans for the new fire station for close to a year. The new station will be built next to the existing fire station, and once the new staion is completed, the old one will be torn down to provide more parking space.
“This is the fastest-growing part of the city,” said Attalla Mayor Larry Means, referring to districts four and five. “It was time. It is an old, outdated fire station. We are just excited about it. It’s something people have been talking about for about 20 years.”
Problems with the old station included that it was not tall enough for a newer fire truck. In order to fit the truck in the station, the floor of the station had to be lowered.
“The value at risk down here is probably the highest value at risk in the city, because you have the high school, the middle school, some apartment complexes and the Super Wal-Mart,” said Attalla Fire Commissioner and City Councilman Bob Cross.
Cross said that the project will cost about 1.3 million dollars and will be paid for with the fire tax account. However, Means said that the fire tax account will not be depleted by the project.
Means added that the city was lucky to already own the land next to the existing fire station, where the new station is being built. In the past the land was used by the schools as a practice field.
Cross joked that the plan was to “get it built as fast as we can.”
Cross said that the City of Attalla hopes to have the new station completed by the end of the year. Site work for the project has already started.
Cross expects that the site work will be completed within two to three weeks, depending on the weather, and then work will begin to ensemble the structure.
A mock-up of the future fire station was displayed during the ground breaking ceremony. The new station will include a 7,000 square-foot engine room and 2,600 square foot office and living space. The engine room will be expandable if needed.