MAX CURTIN, Editor-in-Chief—Out with the old and in with the new.
The Granville Fire Station was built in 1972, and was originally intended to be occupied by a volunteer staff. The Granville Township Fire Department (GTFD) currently owns two buildings adjacent to the fire station which are housed on 133 and 135 East College Street.
47 years later, the department, which now operates 24 hours a day and seven days a week, is relocating to a larger space better suited to accommodate its volume.
The new-and-improved facility will be 20,825 square feet, and will be located by the entrance of Lake Hudson on the corner of Old River Road and Lancaster Road.
The project is estimated to cost $6 million in total, most of which will be funded from a $4.1 million loan awarded to Granville in March of 2019 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Casey Curtis, a life-long firefighter and paramedic, is the current Granville Township Fire Chief. He puts into perspective just how little space he and his team have to work with in their current station.
“There’s not enough room to be able to open truck doors next to each other because they will hit. We have truly just outgrown this space,” Casey says.
Casey wants to make it clear that they are starting fresh, and will not be continuing to use their current facilities in any capacity: “We are not adding on. We are relocating,” he says.
The hope is that the department will be fully transitioned into their new station by August or early September of 2020.
The move leaves the question of what will happen with the current fire station and accompanying buildings on North Prospect Street.
Casey comments that he is not aware of an immediate plan for the station, which is owned by the Village of Granville. He does add, though, that there are multiple possible outcomes for the two adjacent buildings.
“We will end up selling the two houses owned by the Granville Township for them to go back on the market. They could either be for commercial use or for residential use,” Casey says.
At this point in time, there are a number of possibilities for how these spaces will be used by the time next Fall rolls around. Because they are technically three separate lots of land, it remains possible that they could either be sold individually, or packaged together.