County To Close On Property For New Fire Stations

Putnam County will be closing on land purchases for two new fire stations next week.

County Mayor Randy Porter said he hopes to have both fire stations completed by the summer of 2019.

“Both buildings will probably be bid and constructed around the same time, just as soon as weather breaks this spring,” Porter said. “The company that normally gets the bid on the fire hall works pretty fast and our maintenance department does some of the work also.”

One station will be located at the corner of Baylee Boulevard and Clarkrange Highway and the other will be built on Monterey Highway.

Porter said the county has not yet identified land for a third fire station on Gainesboro Grade.

“We had one that we thought we could purchase, but the person decided he did not want to sell it,” Porter said. “We have several leads on some property and hopefully we will be closing on some land in that area pretty soon.”

Porter said the new stations will help speed up response times to area residents, especially in the eastern end of the county.

“They’ll be able to have more vehicles up there ,” Porter said. “That puts two stations instead of just one so it should decrease response time to a lot of the residents that live in that area.”

The Putnam County Commission voted to purchase land for the new fire stations in August. Each property purchase did not exceed $25,000.