304.663.1118

ELLISTON -- It's a dream that's taken 15 years, $1.6 million and a community's patience.

In March, members of the Elliston Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department will finally move into a new station on Enterprise Drive, and their delight in exploring the facility this month indicated it was worth the wait.

Although the department's 10 fire and rescue vehicles won't be moved until the garage floor is sealed in a few weeks, firefighters have been moving smaller items such as filing cabinets and furniture from the old station on Big Spring Drive to the new one, closer to Roanoke on Enterprise Drive.

"We're very proud of this building," said Fire Chief Malvin "Pug" Wells, as he broke into a smile from inside his new office. "We've been working 15 years on it, and we're quite fortunate to have it."

The project was first brought to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors' attention in 1993, when then-Supervisor Joe Stewart told the board that the fire department wanted the county to donate three acres for a new station in the Elliston-Lafayette Industrial Park, said county spokeswoman Ruth Richey.

In 1999, the county set aside $800,000 in revenue bonds for the station, about the same time it was added into the comprehensive plan. The site was moved to Enterprise Drive in 2002.

County engineer Ron Bonnema and his staff completed the station's design in July 2006. Later that year, supervisors allocated an additional $800,000 from the county's general fund to the project, because construction costs had risen over time.

"Any number of things causes a delay on projects, especially when you're dealing with the government. It's slow at best," Supervisor Gary Creed said.

G&H Contracting Inc., the low bidder at $1.6 million, began construction in January 2007.

The 1,600-square-foot building has more than a few bells and whistles, such as a garage with six double bays and a heated floor, bunk rooms, a fitness room and a full-service kitchen.

Space and heat

In the old brick station, the department's tanker truck had to be weighted down with water to clear the top of the 10-foot garage door. When the 32 ¹₂-foot-long tanker and the 30 ¹₂-foot pumper are parked side by side, there's little room to walk around the two trucks without opening the garage doors.

The trucks are washed outside, and there is not enough room in the garage for all of the department's vehicles, which includes a quick-attack truck, two brush trucks, a truck stocked with equipment for hazardous material spills, two sport-utility vehicles loaded with life support equipment, a response vehicle with a boat tow and an amphibious ATV.

The new garage will hold all of these vehicles and more, protecting the more-expensive $500,000 pumper and tanker trucks from damaging ultraviolet rays and cold weather.

The heated floors will help increase the vehicles' life span, said Assistant Fire Chief Clyde Hodges. In what is technically called a hydronic floor, pipes run from small storage rooms in the garage and circulate hot water beneath the bay floor.

This is the first time that G&H project construction superintendent Blase Wagenbrenner has installed this sort of heating system.

"The floor is warm, not cold like concrete," he said. "When they bring the trucks in the wintertime it keeps them warm. It's easier on the vehicles, and you don't lose heat when the doors come open."

Wells said he first saw a hydronic floor 30 years ago in an RV manufacturer's facility in Indiana.

"I was sold on it then," he said.

Other area fire chiefs are sold on the idea, too, and took the opportunity to check it out at a Feb. 7 regional fire chief's meeting.

"The way they did the heat in the bay, that's a neat thing," said Kevin Long, assistant chief with the Salem Rescue Squad. "We're trying to learn something from these new buildings."

Other new features include a fitness room and bunk rooms.

While the firefighters had a room with two beds in the other station, the room was also crammed with desks and file cabinets, Hodges said. Showers were inconveniently located upstairs from the bunks.

"It wasn't really a bunk room," he said.

The new station has two bunk rooms, each with two beds, a night stand and an adjoining shower.

Wells and Hodges said having a nicer place to sleep might persuade some of the volunteers to stay overnight in the station, making for a faster response time.

So far, a 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. night shift is just a goal because "volunteers already give so much of their time," Hodges said, but "we'd love to be able to do that."

"We just didn't have the facility to do that before. We only had two bunk beds in the old station, and it just wasn't very feasible," Hodges said.

"I think we're probably going to spend more time here," said Benny Ryder, a volunteer firefighter with the department for two years.

Ryder works 90 minutes away in Covington but said he refuses to move from Elliston because "I don't want to leave the guys that I'm with now."

"There's a lot of times when we get back from calls that we'll just sit around and talk about things," Ryder said.

Although the dispatcher in the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office usually handles the fire department's calls, the volume of calls during floods and other disasters can become overwhelming.

This is when having a sophisticated dispatch center in the fire station will come in handy.

While the other station had radio equipment, the center at the new station will be set up much better, Hodges said, and includes a computer, a television to monitor The Weather Channel and lots of space, "because anyone doing dispatching needs some space."

With so many small rooms available, the department will also be able to compartmentalize its equipment, making for better communication and response time, he said.

Individual rooms will be designated for swift-water rescue, EMS and hazardous spills equipment, truck tools and telephone and radio gear. Firefighters will be able to keep all their personal equipment in one space.

"Right now we have that stuff piled behind trucks and scattered everywhere," Hodges said.

Although its been a long haul, members of the Elliston Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department are excited about the move.

"It will contribute to interest that leads to more members, and it will inspire the rest of us who are already here to do more than we have in the past," Wells said.

World’s fastest sandwich-making

Elliston’s firefighters aren’t the only ones basking in the luxuries of their new home. On Feb. 7, more than 10 members of the department’s Ladies Auxiliary bustled around the new kitchen, organizing vegetable trays and running their hands over the gleaming tile counters. The women cook for fire and rescue meetings, such as the one to be held that night, but are also on call during emergencies.

“They’re out there doing it, so we’re out there to help them out,” said Daphne Rakes, wife of firefighter Joe Rakes. “They’re very glad to see us coming.”

Although the chief’s wife, Mary Lee Wells, has been cooking for the department for 57 years, the auxiliary wasn’t established until 1996.

“They call us, we go. We take them food and drinks and anything they need. We enjoy it,” Wells said.

The menu varies and is diverse: barbecue, baked chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, ham and even steak. When asked about the most popular entree, those in the room burst into giggles.

“They just love food in general,” Rakes said.

Feeding a lot of hungry firefighters isn’t an easy task, and the auxiliary is proud of the speed in which they do it.

“I think we could probably hold a competition and have a world record for the fastest sandwich-making,” said Amanda Akers, girlfriend of firefighter Raymond Rakes.

She remembers the night when the department turned 10 loaves of bread into sandwiches in 18 minutes.

“I think we’d be world champs,” she said.

The women predict that the new station’s amenities may lure their husbands, boyfriends and friends into spending more time there. They plan to be there, too. It’s a building that the whole community can make use of — especially the dining room area that is easily converted to a meeting place.