VIDEO/PHOTOS: Just off Frank Road in Belgrade, construction is underway for the new Central Valley Fire District station. To understand why the new building is needed, I visited the current fleet maintenance facility. โOur current facility, we can only get one truck in here at a time to work on,โ said Central Valley Fire Fleet Manager Rich Whitaker. โItโll be nice to have the bigger facility so both of us can be working on separate trucks at the same time.โ
Whitaker explained that even maneuvering around the equipment can be a challenge. โYou know, as you can see, this truck barely fits in here,โ he said. โItโs hard to get underneath the trucks; theyโre usually fairly low to the ground.โ Whitaker said the new station’s maintenance area will feature 20-foot sidewalls, and it will have the ability to hold up to eight firefighting apparatuses at a time.
Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Hurley said that more space means faster repairs and faster response times. โTo have multiple apparatuses in here and mechanics working on it, we can get that turnaround faster,โ Hurley said. Central Valley Fire also sees the new facility as an improved way to support Belgrade and the Greater Gallatin Valley. โWith the larger shop, and the way weโre being community partners with doing the work on the apparatuses, thatโs generating revenue for our community,โ Hurley explained.
