Fire district plans for new station

The Argyle Volunteer Fire District is hoping that it will soon be breaking ground on a brand new facility just west of Lantana.

AVFD Chief Mac Hohenberger said, while it is still in its early planning phase, he and his department are hopeful the new station at the corner of FM 407 and Gibbons Road will soon be underway to allow the district to best serve the communities it covers.

“Currently, the only part of the station that has been approved by the board is to hire an architect and engineering firm to prepare all the needed documents to allow the district to go out for bid,” Hohenberger said.

“The board feels with the low construction cost coming in on fire stations as well as the low cost of financing, this would be the best time to build the station.

“Once bids are received, the board will look into the cost for construction as well as financing and make a decision at that time to move ahead or postpone.”

With demand for their services growing, sooner is better than later for the new facility to go up.  In July, the AVFD received 24 calls for service from Lantana, which accounted for 27 percent of all calls for the month.

Hohenberger said the new facility will replace the station located on Hwy 377 in Argyle, which was built in 1973, and will offer many new features the old station did not.

“The current station does not provide adequate sleeping quarters, only sleeping two,” Hohenberger said. “The new station will sleep nine personnel. The new station allows the district to house our equipment in a safer manner, as well.

“The station provides four pull through bays, no longer requiring the driver to back into the short narrow bays at our current station.”

The new facility will also make things simpler for the district by consolidating.

“The old station consists of three separate buildings— one for equipment storage, another for sleeping and training, and a third for administration,” Hohenberger said. “The new station will provide room for those three all under the same roof, also providing a training room, which will be used for board meetings and made available for community meetings.”

Hohenberger said not only will the new facility better serve the needs of the communities to which the AVFD provides service, but will also be good for his firefighters in another important way.

“When our Copper Canyon Road Station 513 opened in 2009, our firefighters were very proud of our new facility,” Hohenberger said. “I have yet to find that station in anything other than an immaculate condition.  Comparing the working conditions of the Copper Canyon Road station to the Hwy 377 station, I am convinced it will raise the morale of our firefighters to have a new safe facility.”

Visit www.argylefire.com for more information on the AVFD.  The district also recently put up a Facebook page that can be found by searching for “Argyle Fire District”.