Space at the Glenville Hill Fire Department is tight.
The 1950s-era building at the corner of Church and Ridge roads has been clipped more than once by the mirrors of its two fire trucks and rescue vehicle that require careful maneuvering to back into narrow bay doors that leave just inches on either side. Once inside, the bay doors have just enough space to close.
Storage at the 4,300-square-foot building is also hard to come by.
The department’s 25 or so members currently store their turnout gear on wooden shelves directly behind the apparatuses, ensuring the equipment is coated in exhaust dust whenever an engine is fired. When a call does come in, first responders often scramble to find a place to get dressed, leaving Chief Craig Myers worried that someone might get struck by a moving vehicle in all the chaos.
“It’s a struggle every day,” he said.
The department is hoping to leave those struggles behind when it moves into a new 6,300-square-foot facility sometime next year. The $4.4 million project, which is expected to break ground later this summer, will mark the first significant upgrade the volunteer department has seen since its founding more than seven decades ago.
The firehouse was built in the 1950s and was used as an aircraft observation tower by the Ground Observation Corps to warn of any impending threats to the American Locomotive Co. and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory during the Cold War.
Myers said officials at the District 8 volunteer department began looking at options for a new facility and ways to fund the project about six years ago and after a fair bit of research, decided to hire an outside consultant to help guide the planning process.
Officials ultimately settled on plans to build a new firehouse directly behind the current facility, which will be renovated to create additional office and training space, as well as a center for community events moving forward.
A series of stakeholder meetings were held last year, and voters in the rural fire district authorized the necessary borrowing for the project during a January referendum.
Taxpayers in the fire district are expected to see a $2.15 increase per $1,000 of assessed property value on their fire district tax bill. That would be an estimated increase of around $430 for a home with an assessed property value of $200,000.
The Glenville Hill Fire Department responds to around 120 calls a year, including those for mutual aid. The department covers a sprawling district that includes around 500 homes, more than 4,000 residents, the Glendaal Elementary School and the Sanders Preserve.
“We have the grade school, one church and one automotive repair facility and the rest is rural,” Myers said.
Myers said the new facility is nothing fancy, noting that officials were conscious of the project’s cost on taxpayers throughout the entire process. The new building will feature three double-deep bay doors that will leave plenty of clearance between vehicles and ensure firefighters have adequate space to store and decontaminate their turnout gear.
The department currently denominates its gear using an extraction that’s kept in a storage closet next to a boiler and hot water heater. The gear is then dried on a homemade rack that is stored on the other end of the firehouse.
“We sort of move things around to make space,” Myers said.
The new building will have split-block facade and will be positioned behind the current facility — a move designed to allow easy access to Ridge Road and allow plenty of room for vehicles to back in without disrupting traffic. The location will also allow the existing building’s parking lot to be preserved, which will reduce the need for new asphalt.
Once complete, the new firehouse will have a place to store and work on all of its equipment, including a trailer that houses a UTV that is currently kept outside due to a lack of space.
Volunteers will also have space to service vehicles inside. Currently, apparatuses must be moved outside to be worked out due to a lack of space inside the existing building.
“It’s truly bare bones,” Myers said of the new building. “There’s nothing fancy.”