Sean C. Morgan
The promised Cascadia fire station has been completed with the paving of its parking lot last week.
Cascadia Station, Station 24, cost the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District about $150,000 to complete, board President Don Hopkins said. The land donated by Cascade Timber Consulting for the project was appraised at about $70,000.
The building itself cost about $83,000 and was completed by Josh Darwood Construction, Hopkins said. The fill and black top cost about $40,000 and was completed by Morse Brothers.
The new station is a little bigger than Crawfordsville Station, Hopkins said. It had to have four feet instead of two between bays.
Other than that, the station is like the one built mostly through donations and volunteers in Crawfordsville.
The station has two large bays and one smaller one in front of a shower and restroom facility, which includes storage above it.
“They’ll come in Monday and set the heat up in it,” Hopkins said Friday afternoon. All that will remain after that is completion of the pump house, which was built by volunteers.
Hopkins expected the station to be in use by the end of the week.
A grand opening will be scheduled after the first of the year, after the holiday season.
The Cascadia has seven volunteers, Hopkins said. Dave and Lowene Blalock and Dan Powers are certified. Four others have not earned their certification yet.
Once the station is open, Hopkins hopes it will generate interest among Cascadians in volunteering.
“We had a lot of interest to begin with,” Hopkins said. “A couple of more meetings and people get a chance to see it, they’ll make the commitment.”
The construction of the new station fulfills one of the district’s obligations. When the district was formed three years ago, the station was a campaign promise to the Cascadia area.
“We told them when we were establishing the new district that was one of the priorites we’d have,” Hopkins said. “It’s a great addition to Cascadia.”
The district was able to complete it using general revenues and $50,000 left over from the now defunct rural fire district.
Initially, Hopkins thought it would cost about $70,000, but he hadn’t thought too much about ground preparation that had to go into the new facility. That added on much of the difference.