HELENA — The City of Helena will be getting a brand new fire station after voters approved a public safety bond last June, and possible designs for it have now been made public.
The city approved the issuance of $7,000,000 in bonds on Monday, and Dowling Architects are designing the third station, which will be on the corner of Custer Avenue and Kelleher Drive near Costco.
(Watch to learn more about Helena's new fire station)
"It's currently a property that's owned by the Water Treatment Facility, which is a city facility," said Helena Fire Chief Jon Campbell. "We're navigating the legalities of how to change that ownership to an internal transaction."
With a design, the city is now looking at code compliance to ensure the design aligns with city ordinances.
There are a few significant differences between this new fire station and the two current facilities.
The new property will have a training facility co-located with the station for live fire training.
Fire Chief Campbell said, "Should incidents come in while we're training, it won't sacrifice our response capability."
Another major difference of the third station is that it will be on the north side of the railroad tracks, where roughly 30 percent of their calls come from.
It will also be much more modern than the other two: station one was built in the 1930's and station two was built in the 1970's.
"We've got some firefighters with over 20 years of experience and time with the City of Helena," said Campbell. "They recall when they were hired over 20 years ago being told that a third fire station was a priority and in the mix. Now, seeing decades of effort come to an actual project that's going to get done, it's really exciting."
Fire Chief Campbell says the city hopes to come back to voters with a levy to staff the new station, but until it is approved, administration and fire prevention staff will use the facility.
"Their current staffing model supports a two-station model," said Campbell. "To open a third station means we need more full-time employees."
Campbell says the new station is expected to be completed around 18 months after breaking ground.
The city is hoping the groundbreaking can happen this fall or early winter.
