ROSSVILLE — After eight years of planning and perseverance, the Rossville Area Fire Protection District has a new home.

Situated on the north edge of Rossville, the residential-style fire station was occupied in April. Built by McDowell Builders of Sidell at a cost of $850,000, the fire station project has had anything but smooth sailing since planning started for it in 2000.

“We just simply outgrew our old station,” said Dean Grimes, president of the fire protection district. “The newer fire engines are a lot bigger than in the past.”

Grimes said the office had to be removed from the old station in order to park the engines inside. It also became necessary to pull equipment out when training had to be done because of a lack of space. Grimes also said parking was a problem for the firefighters answering calls.

“We would have cars parked all over the street when the firefighters responded to a call,” Grimes added.

So the district began looking for a new location for a fire station.

“We looked at several locations throughout the village,” Grimes said. “Either the price was too much or the lot was not large enough.”

The fire protection district eventually found 3 acres on the north edge of Rossville and local farmer Lloyd Morts agreed to sell it to the district.

BUMPY START

The fire protection district ran into some resistance when it applied for a zoning variance from the village. The land was zoned for residential and some Rossville residents wanted the land preserved for new homes.

During the process of getting the zoning changed, the fire protection district promptly received and lost a grant from the Build Illinois program to build a new fire station because it couldn’t get the zoning changed quickly enough and start construction before the grant expired.

In 2007 the fire protection district was able to secure a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture community facilities program for $900,000.

Construction on the fire station began in September 2007 and the first fire trucks were parked in the building in April of this year.

“We closely followed the construction of new fire stations in Milford and Cissna Park to see what worked for them and didn’t work,” said Mark Willard, vice president of the fire protection district. “Our special use permit required us to use a residential design as much as possible, so it would blend in with the surrounding houses.”

“This station holds our equipment now, with plenty of room for training,” said Lloyd Smith, fire chief of the district.

The fire station is equipped with a meeting room, kitchen, office space and four truck bays, capable of housing eight vehicles. The building is equipped with overhead doors on both ends so the trucks can be pulled in rather than backed in.

“We currently have two fire engines, one tanker and a rescue vehicle,” Smith said. “We also have another tanker we are working on to put in service.

“Our newest engine is a 2006 and we received a grant for $180,000 to pay for it.”

Smith also said the district has received about $160,000 in other grants to pay for new air packs, radios, pagers and other equipment.

The firefighters also raised $6,000 on their own to buy a thermal imaging camera.

“This is nearly $250,000 worth of new equipment we didn’t have to pay for ourselves,” Smith said.

According to Willard, the fire station could be used as a heating or cooling center, if necessary. It also could serve as a shelter for people during times of a disaster. The fire station is equipped with its own backup generator.

BEING CAUTIOUS

However, neither the fire protection district trustees nor the volunteer firefighters are able to celebrate the new station just yet.

Earlier this year, the district learned that it had received erroneous advice from its previous legal counsel regarding a tax levy to repay the loan to the USDA. The district had planned to take half the money for the payments from its general operating fund and levy a special tax for the other half of the payments.

State officials would not allow the special levy to pay a mortgage loan, so that left the fire protection district board with little recourse except to put a bond referendum on the November ballot.

The district is asking for slightly less than 12 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to raise the funds to make the loan payments. The repayment period is 20 years.

“After the bonds are paid, the tax will come off,” Grimes said.

Willard is concerned that residents might think they (district officials) didn’t plan well enough.

“We acted on the legal advice we had at the time,” Willard said. “We did our homework; we watched every penny that went in to building this building. We even came in under budget.”

“The firefighters did a lot of work themselves and did all of the landscaping,” Grimes added.

Grimes said the worst-case scenario if the referendum doesn’t pass is that the USDA will foreclose on the fire station and the firefighters and their equipment will be evicted from their new home.

Smith points out that the fire department has been awarded a rating of 5 from the Insurance Services Organization for the past several years.

“Only two other volunteer fire departments in Vermilion County have this high of a rating,” Smith said. “This is a rating of our fire department, equipment and firefighter training.

“This rating also translates to a 15 percent savings on the average homeowner’s insurance policy. This would more than offset the increase in taxes from our bond referendum.”

COMING UP

The Rossville Area Fire Protection District will have an open house 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 13 to allow the public to see the new fire station. The fire district trustees will provide food, as well as answer questions concerning the upcoming bond referendum.