New fire station tops CC list

Charles City’s volunteer fire department has rearranged its priorities when it comes to fire station expansion and construction, and District I Board of Supervisors representative Gilbert Smith couldn’t be happier.

In a letter to supervisors made public during the board’s Dec. 19 meeting, department Chief Archer Jones Jr. wrote that fire officials now consider a fire station to be built in Smith’s district as number one on the department’s priority list. Dropping out of the top spot is a plan to enlarge the department’s station on Adkins Road.

The letter prompted Smith to quickly motion to accept the fire department’s revised list.

“I’ve been waiting for this motion for many a year,” Smith told fellow board members, just before their 3-0 vote granted approval.

Now the county will proceed on the project, which calls for a fire station to be built on a lot just over an acre in size in Roxbury Industrial Park off Route 106. County Administrator Jack Miniclier said the site has been reserved for fire department use ever since the industrial park was originally designed.

No construction money has been budgeted to date although an estimated $850,000 price tag has been plugged into the county’s five-year capital improvement plan.

What has been budgeted, Miniclier said, is $43,000 in architectural fees. The county has contracted with Richmond-based RML Architects to perform the design phase that is slated for completion in late spring, he said.

The 4,800 square-foot building will feature an 80-foot-long double bay for fire vehicles along with space for administrative offices.

“Our goal is for construction to begin in the fall of 2008 and by the spring or summer of 2009, hopefully, it will be finished,” Miniclier said.

He added that supervisors plan to explore potential funding sources for the new station during work that begins in January on the county’s next fiscal year budget.

Fire officials, meanwhile, say they plan to seek county citizen support through money-raising activities to pay for expansion of the Adkins Road station.

In other matters at the Dec. 19 meeting, supervisors appointed Walter Harris as the county’s director of public works/utilities, filling a void created when Miniclier was elevated to county administrator. Harris has served as Miniclier’s assistant for the past seven years.

Also, the board learned that work on the Charles City portion of the Virginia Capital Trails Project, a bicycle/pedestrian lane paralleling Route 5, is slated to begin in January with completion expected in July 2009.

The board also presented resolutions of appreciation to District 3 Supervisor Michael Holmes and County Attorney Randy Boyd. Holmes lost his board seat in the November election, and Boyd declined to seek reelection as county commonwealth’s attorney although he will continue to serve as county attorney.