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Slowing economy has hurt fundraising for fire station
Advance department needs $1 million from community
Photo Courtesy of Advance Fire Department
The cramped quarters of a 56-year-old station present a variety of challenges for the 35 volunteers at the Advance Fire Department.
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Published: October 26, 2008
ADVANCE - Back in 1952, when some local people decided that the town needed to establish a fire department, one man auctioned a peanut that he had pushed across the road with his nose.
The prized peanut brought in $700, which helped pay for a new fire station that would serve this small community in eastern Davie County.
After years of additions and renovations, Advance has outgrown that old fire station.
And it will take more than a peanut auction and rummage sales to pay for it.
The board of directors for the volunteer fire department hopes that construction will begin on a $2.3 million fire station sometime next spring.
The new station will sit on four acres that the fire department owns on N.C. 801, across the road from the post office.
Ronnie Robertson, a board member who joined the fire department in 1970, when he was a senior at Davie High School, said that the fire department will cover $1.3 million for the new building. But it needs the community to kick in $1 million.
In such sluggish economic times, that hasn't been easy. So far, the fire department has received pledges of $20,000 and collected about half of that. The board had hoped to have about $750,000 by this point in the drive, Robertson said.
"If we could have done this two years ago, we could have had the building up," he said. "The economy is killing us. But at the end of the day, the need is still there. We're going to have to have this station at some time."
The current station can't be expanded because it is bounded by railroad tracks and a road. The cramped quarters present a bevy of challenges for the department's 35 volunteers.
The department's newest engine, a 2001 model, just barely fits in one of the bays. In fact, the overhead room is so tight that a roll of quarters won't fit between the top of the cab and the garage door.
A small sitting area, which consists of a few recliners and a TV, is situated near three fire engines. During calls, the fumes from the engines fill the area with carbon monoxide.
A training room doubles as a kitchen that the department uses twice a year for its barbecue dinners, which help pay for operating expenses. A First Responder truck takes up much of the space in this area.
Electrical power can be spotty. During the tornadoes in May, power was knocked out at the station. Someone eventually brought in a generator, but valuable time was lost. The new station will have an automatic transfer switch that will power up a generator in the event of an electrical outage.
There is also no room to store a ladder truck, a piece of equipment that Robertson said the department needs.
In Davie County, 4 cents of every $100 paid in property taxes is spread among the county's 12 fire departments and one rescue squad. In 2006-2007, the Advance Fire Department got $242,000. That money is used for insurance, maintenance, utilities and other needs.
Grants are available to pay for equipment and training but not building costs, Robertson said.
To help its cause, the board has hired Diana Parrish as a consultant. She has tried to drum up support for the new station at neighborhood meetings and among community groups. Besides the economy, one of the challenges is that people don't think about the importance of fire and rescue squads until they need one, she said.
"A lot of people don't know that they are volunteers," Parrish said.
The fire department serves a daily population of 10,000 people. That area has grown over the past 10 years as more developments pop up in eastern Davie County. Last year, volunteers responded to 425 911 calls, a 25 percent jump from the previous year.
"There's no reason that the new building won't satisfy the needs of the community for the next 50 years," Robertson said. "We got 56 years out of this one."
Robertson said that the board has already scaled back construction plans. For instance, the upstairs will be left unfinished. If the money isn't raised, the department will have to push back groundbreaking. "To build something less is not going to meet our needs," he said.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
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