PIMA — The effort to build a new station for the Pima Fire Department got a big boost from Country Financial.
Vaughn Grant and Jenna Ferrin presented the department with a check from Country Financial’s Helping Heroes program.
“We have the opportunity once year to provide a $3,000 check to a first responder of our choice,” Grant said. “We’ve done different things over the last four year, but we felt this would be a good one for the Fire Department this year.”
Earlier this year, Pima Fire leadership informed the Town Council of the department’s effort to raise funds for a new station. Fire Chief Scott Howell told the council the size of the current station is too small to accommodate modern trucks, and the station is subject to flooding during rains.
Cost to construct a new station is estimated at $2 million to $2.5 million.
“It depends on how many bells and whistles we can get,” said Assistant Chief Daryl Weech. “It’s that Catch-22; they want to know how much you need to build, but we need to know what we can build to get the money, to finance it. It goes back and forth.”
The Country Financial check was presented during the Fire Department’s barbecue fund-raiser Saturday night. In addition to local fund-raising efforts, the department is seeking both local and federal grants.
Once funding is secured, the plan is to tear down the current station, elevate the building pad to mitigate flooding issues, and build the new station at the same location.
Additional space would be made available thanks to the Pima Library seeking to relocate to a larger facility closer to the schools.
