Milton Fire Department Growing & Expanding
Milton is a growing town – and now to work to meet the increased need of an increased population, the Milton Fire Company is looking to expand. With help from Horizon Philanthropic Services, the company last month entered into a year-long capital campaign to raise at least $2-million of the needed $4.2-million total cost. The fire company plans to renovate and expand it’s current site on Front Street from over 12,000 square feet to just over 26,000 square feet. “Our investigation to purchase land and complete all-new construction revealed that it would have cost more than twice as much as our addition and renovation project,” said Fire Department President Johnny Hopkins.
Features of the expanded station will include a new engine bay that will house two pieces of apparatus and the reconstruction and enlargement of an existing bay currently housing four pieces. Other improvements include a larger community room, new bunk rooms, and restrooms; laundry, recreation and meal facilities for volunteer firefighters and paid EMS staff, a meeting and training room, and new administrative offices.
The building design will eliminate the current flat roof and replace the aging heating and A/C systems with modern, cost-efficient units, Hopkins said.
The MFD itself will pay for $2.6 million of the project cost, through a $2 million loan and $600,000 from earmarked growth funds as well as the recent sale of donated building lots. If at least $2 million can be raised through donations, that will save MFD a substantial amount in mortgage fees each year. Hopkins said those funds could then be utilized toward the necessary replacement and updating of expensive firefighting equipment and apparatus.
More than 70 Firefighters and over 50 Ladies Auxiliary Members volunteer at the MFD, Hopkins said, and station operations are managed by an elected volunteer Board of Directors, resulting in very low overhead.
Last year, the station responded to 1,745 Fire and EMS calls within its assigned 100 square mile territory, and in assistance to eight neighboring fire companies.
The general contractor for the fire station expansion is i3a Ide3 Associates, LLC – Consulting Engineers and Construction Management. The project is being financed primarily through a loan with Shore United Bank.
Anyone who would like information on our building campaign, how to donate, who to talk to, fundraising events, etc., please visit our building campaign website at the following link; station85campaign.org
The fire company has been posting picture updates of the renovation & expansion work since it began in August.
http://www.milton85.com/gallery/detail/36837
http://www.milton85.com/gallery/detail/36992
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http://www.milton85.com/gallery/detail/37309
