Fire station remodel help sought

Over the years, Pea Ridge community members have banded together to create or build something for the community. Examples of that are the baseball fields on Weston Street for young ball players and the school band program when it first began. Community members helped build the old football stadium in the early 1960s.

And, community members formed the first fire department here.

Now, there is a possibility for a community project to help the Fire Department again.

“We’re using this as a community project to help remodel the station for full-time firefighters,”

said Fire Chief Jack Wassman, explaining that years ago, the three offices that did exist in the station were converted to bedrooms for the ambulance personnel when the ambulance began being staffed 24 hours a day.

“We have no office space — we have one office for three chiefs. Our administrative assistant is in a hallway for right now,” Wassman said. “We’re needing more office space, bedrooms and a new medical supply closet that is climate controlled.”

To that end, the department has taken over the community room and has designed the space to be converted into bedrooms and add more offices in the front of the building.

“We have to prepare for the growth for the future,” he said. “We’ll have five offices and seven bedrooms.”

“Some of the builders who are here in town are stepping up and have provided materials and offered labor,” Wassman said. “We’re wanting it to be a community project, something the community is involved in.”

He said they welcome materials, citizens who have experience, or just want to help. “We want to make this about the community,” he said. “It’s not just the Fire Department looking for a handout; we want the citizens involved in it.

“We want something the firemen, the city, the citizens can be proud of,” he said. “We’re taking our time and really looking at hour we’re constructing this. This is not just for 10 or 20 years, but a 50-year project.”

Wassman said he received permission from the mayor to take over the community room and to remodel as long as it didn’t come out of the Fire Department budget. He said the he had applied for the SAFER grant to fund personnel.

“I need to reiterate, the ambulance crew we have are not employees of the city of Pea Ridge,” he said. “They all work here part time after working 56 hours somewhere else.”

“We rely, we’ll always rely, on volunteers and mutual aid,” Wassman said, explaining that the National Fire Protection Association recommends 17 firefighters on the ground at a scene. “We don’t every foresee the city of Pea Ridge will have 17 employees.”

The building now housing the Fire Department was built in 1993 and housed the fire, ambulance and police departments.

“We’re busting at the seams and don’t have any room,” he said.

“We have reached out to all the major builders here in town who are putting in subdivisions, most of them have stepped up and have in one way or another have helped or are going to help with monetary, supplies, or services,” he said.

Some supplies have already been donated. Wassman said anyone interested in helping, may contact the Fire Department at 451-1111.