York moves forward with plans for fire substation

The city of York expects to break ground in the spring on a roughly $1.5 million to $1.8 million fire department substation on Arrow Road and Alexander Love Highway.

Fire Chief Domenic Manera said the station, planned to be about 7,800 square feet, will be built on about three acres donated to the city several years ago by the York school district.

Manera and City Manager Charles Helms said they hope the station will be open by the spring of 2017 at the latest.

“The town is growing and there is a need for another station,” said Helms. “That’s the main reason to do this, so we can have good fire protection for the whole city.”

Helms said the city plans to pay for the new fire substation with money from a revolving capital improvement fund, so property tax rates will not be affected.

He said the city has been working with Southern Builders in Rock Hill on the construction plans but has not yet signed a contract.

Manera said the substation would be staffed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at first, but long-range plans call for it to be staffed around the clock.

He said the department has 12 full-time employees, including himself and an administrative office person, and 13 volunteers. “If our volunteer numbers pick up or we are able to hire more people during the next couple years, we may be able to man it 24 hours,” he said.

Manera said the city wants to maintain or improve its fire insurance rating, which affects property insurance premiums for homeowners and businesses.

Manera said the York Fire Department has a current fire insurance rating of four, with one being the best and 10 the worst.

During a recent evaluation by the Insurance Service Organization, which sets those ratings, Manera said, the department “barely missed going up to a three, and some of that had to do with the fire station.”

One factor in the fire insurance rating is the distance between stations, Manera said. The city, which has only one fire station, needs a fire truck within 1  1/2 miles of any area to get the lowest rating, he said.

The planned fire substation will be about 2 to 2  1/2 miles from the main fire station downtown, which would improve the city’s fire coverage, he said.

Manera told the council that architectural plans for the substation call for it to be patterned after the old fire and police station and City Hall building that once stood on East Liberty Street, across from Trinity United Methodist Church. That building was torn down in the early 1980s.

Manera said York has the second oldest fire station in the state, incorporated in 1842, and he wanted to capitalize on that history in the new substation.

He said the city’s architectural firm, Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects out of Gastonia, N.C., came up with a floor plan and renderings for the planned station based on a photo of the old building.

York also owns an historic fire truck, one of 29 built in 1944, he said. The truck was restored with private donations, Manera said, and the City Council at that time stipulated in approving the renovations that it could never be sold.

Manera said the new substation would include space to park the historic truck where people could see it.

“We already have a lot of growth out there,” he said of the location. “And we are trying to be more proactive than reactive, so we are trying to get this done.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 10:01 AM with the headline "York moves forward with plans for fire substation."