Jefferson City Fire Department buys land for new fire station

The Jefferson City Fire Department recently closed on a 15-acre land purchase on which it plans to build a new station to replace one of its aging buildings.

The department plans to rebuild Station 2 on Robinson Drive. The property is about a mile east of the current station, which is located on East McCarty Street.

The current station is 47 years old. Fire Chief Matt Schofield said that aside from its outdated design and various issues, it sits at a less-than-ideal location at the bottom of a slope off East McCarty Street.

“When it’s ice covered, sometimes the truck has a hard time getting out of the driveway,” Schofield said. “When it does get out of the driveway, it’s coming from below grade and it makes it very difficult for oncoming motorists to see the emergency vehicle coming out of the station.”

Schofield said the new site on Robinson Drive will be a better location for the department.

“It’s on high ground and has good visibility on McCarty Street and good access to Algoa Road as well as Highway 50 and the roundabout,” Schofield said.

The land cost the department about $210,000.

Preliminary plans are to build a 10,000-square-foot building with an improved layout. Early designs include additional restrooms, a community training room, workout room, office space and a larger bay for the fire trucks.

“It would be a three-bay station — two of which would be full drive through and one would be a half-bay,” Schofield said. “So it gives us a lot more options in terms of apparatus, and we’re not limited by the garage door height or the length of the apparatus bay.”

The department has a little more than $1 million allocated toward the new station through the city’s half-cent sales tax and the sale of the old Fire Station 3.

But Schofield said the department will need to ask the City Council for additional funding.

The fire chief hopes to break ground on the new station in the spring of 2018, if it is approved by city council members.