Fire company breaks ground for firehouse
COLLEGEVILLE » You could tell that Jay Murphy, chief of Collegeville Fire Company No. 1, was exuberant.
Groundbreaking for the long-awaited new firehouse on East 5th Avenue was finally here and — with his tongue firmly lodged in his cheek — he told an audience of 60 spectators that demolition of the existing firehouse would take place in a week or so and that the new station would be up and running by the 30th.
After the crowd’s laughter had subsided, Murphy got realistic. The projected target date for completion of the $2.5 million project is Nov. 30.
“We started thinking about a new fire station back in 1991,” recalled Murphy. “It was a long process and we encountered a lot of roadblocks along the way but we are here today to witness this historical groundbreaking.”
One of the high points at the ceremonial digging was the presentation of a $145,000 check by state Sen. John Rafferty on behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“We know that this was a long time coming, but your day is finally here for you to build a new state-of-the-art firehouse, a community asset that will be greatly appreciated by both the firefighters and area residents,” Rafferty said
Gorski Enginering of Collegeville has designed, and will construct, the new twostory, 12,370-square-foot building , complete with a four-bay engine room, bunk rooms, operational and administrative offices, a communications room, a day room and a community hall to accommodate fund-raisers and other events.
The existing station house was built in 1958. Because of its age, Craig Penuel, president of Collegeville Fire Company, explained, “the facility has been in a perpetual state of repair. Throughout the years, company members were continually applying band-aids to the building, putting patches on the roof and fixing holes in the wall.”
Although the building was appropriate for a 20th century fire station, “it is entirely inadequate for the
21st century and it’s just not financially responsible to patch up the station by continually bandaging it,” he said.
Brian Freas, Collegeville Fire Company vice president, pointed out that, in a strong rainstorm, “we ended up with a small
creek, complete with waterfall, that ran from the back of the station to the front of the bayroom. Firefighting is a dangerous job as it is; what we don’t need is to have our safety jeopardized as we prepare to leave the station for an emergency.”