By Becky Purser
The Macon Telegraph
Copyright 2007 The Macon Telegraph
POWERSVILLE, Ga. — Peach County Firefighter Lt. Joe Tucker used to sleep on the couch at the old fire station because of the brown recluse spiders that crawled into the cramped living quarters.
Tucker, a 13-year firefighter, now is able to rest in a comfortable twin bed while on 24/7 duty at the new Powersville Fire Station - a facility that he and the other firefighters built.
A fluffy pink lamp rests on a lamp stand nearby - a practical joke from other firefighters for when Tucker spent his first night at the new station.
Joking aside, a comparsion of the 2,800-square-foot, old station at Lakeview Road and Powersville Road and the 11,200-square-foot new station at 6711 Peach Parkway near Newell Road is like night and day.
The new station has six large bays, which allows all the firefighting vehicles to be protected from inclement weather. At the old station, the 6,000-gallon tanker truck, required for a county that has few hydrants in rural areas, had to be parked outside, while the engine, brush and rescue trucks were squeezed into the bay area.
At the old station, there was no room for storage or for classroom training. Firefighters had to leave their living quarters and go into the bay areas to reach the rest rooms.
The new station is equipped with a large day area that accommodates recliners, a spacious kitchen and a big-screen TV. There are public rest rooms in the foyer, and a private rest room for firefighters adjacent to the living quarters. This large rest room includes a shower. It’s connected to a large bedroom with four twin beds.
There’s also an office for the volunteers, and another room for physical fitness equipment to help firefighters keep in shape. Another room is for the ambulance service, which runs calls from the station three times a week and may eventually operate out of the station 24/7.
On the second floor, there’s a large meeting room equipped with audio-visual equipment installed by one of the volunteers who does that for a living at Robins Air Force Base. The room, which is available for public use, already has been the site of county and school board meetings.
There’s also a small kitchen upstairs, administrative offices and storage for specialized training and fire safety materials.
But the most remarkable aspect of the fire station, firefighters and public officials agree, is the cost: $225,000, paid for from revenue from a special purpose local option sales tax, for a facility valued at more than $800,000.
The reason?
The firefighters who man the Powersville station, or Station 1, constructed the building themselves - with the help of state Department of Corrections inmates. That’s everything from erecting the steel to painting to carpeting to electrical work.
The firefighters did the work after putting in a full day at their jobs, often toiling into the early morning hours, for about five months. Some used their vacation time to work on building the new station.
Tucker, a full-time firefighter, worked on the construction on his days off.
Dave Griffin, the station’s assistant fire chief, said: “We erected the steel, put up all the insulation, put the roof up, did all the interior framing. We probably put in about 7,000 to 8,000 man-hours. The prisoners probably put in about 5,000 man-hours.”
In addition, firefighters raised funds to pay for brickwork they erected around the facade of the station and for a sign out front.
“It was a long haul putting it together,” Griffin said.
The investment is already paying off, the assistant chief said. Prospective volunteers have come forward, the new station has boosted department morale and an Explorer’s Post for young people interested in making a career of firefighting has been formed, he said.
Station 1 Chief Tommy Woods spent plenty of nights until midnight or 1 a.m. helping to build the station.
“Compared to what we had, we’ve got us a nice station,” Woods said. “We’ve also got more pride in this one because we built it.”
As far as volunteer firefighter 1st Lt. Roger Holmes is concerned, the new station is like a “castle.”
“All that we lack is a barbershop and a full-time cook,” Holmes said.