Construction to begin early next year on new Green Mountain Falls fire station
More than three years after voters in the Green Mountain Falls/Chipita Park Fire Protection District approved a tax hike for a new fire station, construction is set to begin next month.
The $4 million station, expected to be complete by the end of 2020, will have an administrative section, living quarters and apparatus bay to house the district’s fire engine and half-dozen other vehicles, said district Treasurer Gary Florence.
It will be on a hill behind the Town Hall on Green Mountain Falls Road, which will provide easy access to the Chipita Park area, Florence said.
At 14,000-square feet, the station will be roughly double the size of the existing Ute Pass Avenue building, which “is not much more than a garage storage facility for the fire equipment with an office attached to it,” he said. Parts of it are 70 years old.
“It doesn’t meet the needs of today’s firefighters,” Florence said. “What we’re building is a station for the future. Somewhere down the road, 15 or 20 years from now, we’re going to probably need a full-time manned fire department.”
In 2016, district voters approved a bond issue of up to $3.5 million, along with a tax increase, to pay for the fire station. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs is also contributing a $1 million grant, he said.
“The primary benefit is that there will be a better fit for our equipment,” Florence said. “And there will be more safety for the firefighters — they won’t be getting dressed 18 inches away from moving equipment.”
The new station can also be better protected from floods than the existing facility, which sits on the banks of Fountain Creek, The Pikes Peak Courier reported.
“This new station takes us out of the flood zone,” district president Rich Bowman told The Courier at a ceremonial groundbreaking this month. “We are now able to defend this station in case of fire or flood. Before, we couldn’t.”
The Green Mountain Falls/Chipita Park Fire Protection District, which has a paid full-time chief and about a dozen volunteers, serves roughly 1,600 people in the Ute Pass communities. The agency responds to more than 300 calls a year, most of which are for medical emergencies, Florence said.
Its 2020 budget is about $230,000, excluding the funds for the new station.
Green Mountain Falls board members and firefighters break ground for a new fire station above Town Hall this month. From left, Rich Bowman, Chief Steve Murphy, Sandy Fellmeth, Gary Florence, Molly Stevens, Buzz Walsh and Michael Butts.