The Edgewood Fire Department took a giant leap forward in its plans to have a new fire hall with a donation from the local Legion last week.
The Edgewood Legion gave the fire department a prime piece of property to build the new facility.
“It’s very exciting,” says Lynda McNutt, the president of the Edgewood Volunteer Fire Department. “We can hopefully by the end of the year begin construction of a new fire hall in the community.”
McNutt says the RDCK provided about $165,000 in funding for the project, but that wasn’t enough to both start construction and buy land for the building. That’s when the Legion stepped in.
“I approached the Legion, and they were open to donating one of their pieces of property in town,” says McNutt. “They contacted a survey company, applied for funding, and they got the severance.”
The new property is 82 feet by 232 feet, and across the street from the school.
“It’s perfect,” says McNutt. “We’ll be able to hook up to town water, and install our own septic system.”
Even with the Legion’s breakthrough gift, there’s still a fair amount of sweat equity that will be needed, she says.
“With prices nowadays, $165,000 isn’t that much to complete construction,” she says. “So the firefighters will have to do some of the interior framing work ourselves. But that’s fine, we don’t mind doing that.”
Right now the volunteers have a small facility that can’t even fit the equipment they have.
“It’s served us well, but we recently purchased a new-to-us fire truck,” she said. “We currently don’t have a place to put it, because the little fire hall we have been using is just way to small.
That’s changed now, and the spring may see a new home for the firetruck in Edgewood.
“It could not have happened without the generous efforts of Paul Peterson, our RDCK area director,” says McNutt. “We cannot thank him enough.”
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