Va. fire department gets grant money for new fire station

By Amy Matzke-Fawcett and Shawna Morrison
The Roanoke Times

RIVER VALLEY, Va. — Two New River Valley agencies have received federal grants for project funding. The Dublin Police Department will be able to buy three new vehicles with federal grant money, and the Pearisburg Fire Department will have a new $2.8 million fire station. U.S. Rep.

Rick Boucher, R-Abingdon, announced in a news release Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through its Rural Development Agency, is awarding the $50,000 grant to the town of Dublin.

More information about the source of the Pearisburg grant was not available Wednesday.

Calls to Boucher's office seeking more information were not returned.

The money will help the police department buy two patrol vehicles and a four-wheel drive vehicle, the news release said, marking the first purchase of new police vehicles in the town for 12 years.

In Pearisburg, the building is completely federally funded, with construction expected to begin in 2011 and completion in 2012, said Rick Tawney, Pearisburg town engineer.

Boucher is scheduled to announce the project at 9 a.m. with town and Giles County officials at the current fire department building at 720 Mountain Ave. in Pearisburg, according to a news release from Boucher's office.

The new station will be a one-story building with three double fire truck bays and a training room that can double as a community event room, Tawney said.

It will be next to the current fire station on Mountain Avenue.

That station, a two-story building with three single fire truck bays that's more than 60 years old, will be demolished, Tawney said.

Newer fire trucks, including one bought last year, don't fit well in the old single bays, he said.

"There's only an inch on each side of the new truck when they back it in," he said.

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