News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Construction on Putnam County’s new Hyder Farm Fire Department begins this June.
Brown said the new station would fill the gap of coverage in the northwestern part of the county. Brown said that’s several hundred homes.
“We had a large void in coverage in that area,” Brown said. “We try to have a station within five road miles of any address. Obviously, that is extremely difficult to do being relatively rural.”
The Insurance Services Office creates ratings for fire departments and their surrounding communities. Brown said the Castlebrooke, Huntington Woods and Biltmore subdivisions were being penalized because of that lack of fire protection nearby.
“There were three subdivisions that were class 10 in ISO’s eyes, which is the same as no fire protection,” Brown said. “We were coming to calls from a distance. This station will solve this problem.”
Brown said the 40 by 50 foot station will house one tanker fire truck and be unmanned unless needed. Walt’s Construction won the bid for construction with an estimated $85,000 price.
The Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees agreed Thursday to sell 0.5 acres of the Hyder Farm to Putnam County for the station. Putnam County paid $25,000 for the piece of land on the corner of the farm. The revenue will go to scholarships as outlined in the 1996 gift of W. Claude Hyder and his wife.
Once the purchase becomes official, Brown said construction begin. Brown expects to be in the new building by December.
