New Crawfordsville fire station nears completion

    The town of Crawfordsville can now boast of a new fire station and city hall thanks largely to a grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation. The new fire station sits directly on the land occupied by the old fire station building that was wheeled away last summer. 

    Roy Felts, Crawfordsville Fire Chief, said he is very pleased with the new building. He said he especially likes the extra room afforded by the new fire station, which measures 60-feet by 96-feet.

    ?We could fit four fire trucks in the old building, but we had to park them between doors and leave just 2 feet between each truck,? said Felts. ?It was extremely inconvenient to get them in and out of the station. The new station is a tremendous improvement.?

    Felts said that the department?s ?quick attack? brush truck was parked between two other fire trucks and could not leave the station without one of the other trucks being moved. Felts also remarked that the department has space to do more training of its volunteers.

    ?We?ve got more room to do indoor training now,? said Felts. ?We have room to do search and rescue training. We can get out the door quicker than before.?

    The cost of constructing the new building was $275,000. The Crawford Township Fire Association applied for a grant from the Riverboat Foundation in Oct. 2008 to help fund the project. The Riverboat Foundation agreed to give $200,000 to help construct the fire station.

    ?We could not have built this building without the aid of the Riverboat Foundation,? said Layne Twinam, one of the three fire department trustees.

    The remaining costs of the project were picked up by the Crawford Township Fire Association, the City of Crawfordsville and the Crawfordsville First Responders.

    In addition to the fire department, the new fire station also hosts city council meetings. The new station replaced the old station, which was 35 years old. Twinam said there were several issues with the old station.

    ?The old building had leaks, termite damage, rot, poor insulation, and space constraints,? said Twinam. ?The new building was put on a raised foundation to ensure it would have a long service life.?

    The old fire station was not demolished but rather moved to the countryside over the summer by Jeremy Patterson, who owns a super-structure moving business in Washington.

    ?In the old building, the first responders had a small closet to store their equipment,? said Twinam. ?They still have a closet, but it?s a much bigger closet.? 

    Twinam also said that the fire station is now large enough to accommodate the purchase of other vehicles and equipment in the future.

    ?The first responders can have as much room as they want now,? said Twinam. ?It?s just that the space they?re taking up fits their needs. We also have enough room in the new station that the first responders could get a vehicle some day.?

For the full article, see our Jan. 8 print edition.