It was kind of fitting that the “ceremony” to break ground on the new Rural Fire District No. 2 fire station took about four seconds.
After four years of funding battles and location issues, it was somewhat anticlimactic to finally reach the point of soil moving on the site in the Arma Industrial Park.
But with any luck at all, construction will begin on the site today on a brand new fire station that will serve not only Arma and Franklin, but also more rural towns like Mulberry and Croweburg. But don’t tell that to Arma Fire Chief Mike McLeod.
“I don’t see any tractors or heavy equipment out here yet,” McLeod said. “This is a giant step. We’ve still got the fire trucks parked at different places. We want all of these at this location. We’ll also have a better training room, and a bigger place to put our stuff away. We’ll look at starting a sleep-in program so guys can be on call 24 hours a day.”
-------
The process of getting to the groundbreaking was difficult, though.
Starting several years ago, the fire district wanted to build a new fire station and went to Arma city leaders first. Arma officials said at that time that they did not want to pay the entire cost of a new fire station in case finances got tighter.
So the RFD got help from Craig Stokes, Franklin, who wrote a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program and received a $50,000 grant and $673,300 as a low-interest loan with plans to put the site in Franklin.
In the spring, RFD officials began to question the Franklin site and asked Arma leaders again about a possible deal. This time, Arma agreed to a deal to build a fire station in the Arma industrial park.
“This is all about progress. The way the economy is nowadays, it’s nice to see something positive come out of it,” McLeod said. “This new station will provide us quick access to the highway. We won’t have to drive through town. And when they build the new [U.S. Highway 69], we’ll have good access to it.”
Officials said they hope the site will be finished by early spring, but it would take some reliance upon good weather in order to make that happen.
But for now, McLeod and the firemen from RFD No. 2 will keep waiting and keep thanking those that made the fire station possible, including USDA Rural Development.
“Rural Development is the only reason we can do this,” McLeod said. “If it wasn’t for USDA Rural Development, this wouldn’t go on.”
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 132.
ARMA —
