Kiski Township Fire Department seeks community backing for new fire hall

Dec. 29--A barren patch of ground off of Route 56 will become the new home of the Kiski Township Fire Department.

The department plans to build a new truck garage and social hall on 3 acres it owns near Kings Road.

If ground is broken next summer as expected, it would be the realization of a project in the works for decades.

"It would be a dream come true," said Gary Kepple, the department's treasurer for 17 years and head of the building committee. "In the 21 years I've been there, that department has come a long, long way from where it was.

"What we're lacking now is a building up along the main corridor where people can see us."

But residents' help is needed. The department will send out a mailing early in the new year seeking donations to its building fund, fire Chief Rich Frain said.

The department has about $200,000 to put toward the project, which is expected to cost between $800,000 and $900,000.

Frain hopes to raise an additional $100,000 in donations to cut into how much the department will have to borrow.

But no matter how much is raised, Frain said the department can't afford to wait any longer. Costs keep going up, and the department isn't getting ahead.

Donations of any amount would help and be appreciated, he said.

"We've got to get this project going here," he said. "Hopefully, we have some generous people out there."

The department's existing truck garage is on Kings Road near the township police station, while the fire department's social hall is nearby on Old State Road.

The truck garage, which the department bought in the 1980s, is in decent shape but is too small for the seven vehicles it houses, Frain said. If the department was to replace its oldest vehicle, a 1979 Mack engine, its replacement would not fit.

"We've outgrown it," Frain said. "It's so tight, you can't walk between half the trucks. You have to open the doors to walk around the trucks."

The social hall was once a three-bay truck garage. It's also too small and at 70 years old is showing signs of age.

The department uses it for fund-raising events but has trouble renting it because of its size and condition, Frain said.

"We try to make upgrades, but there's only so much you can do to it," Frain said.

Money the department has for the new building includes about $140,000 from a pending sale of the old garage. The building fund has about $65,000 in donations.

The department will keep the social hall, which the ambulance company will use, Frain said.

The new garage and hall will be separate but connected.

Frain said the building will be able to serve as an evacuation center as it will be equipped with a backup generator that would power its kitchen and heating and cooling.

Once started, construction is expected to take three months.

"I really think a new building is going to be a nice thing for the community. I really do," Frain said. "It's something that we need."

Benefits of giving

Kepple said homeowners would be helping themselves by helping the fire department. With a donation of $52 -- or $1 a week -- homeowners could help avoid an increase in their insurance cost, which would go up if the department were to fold.

"The day it hits the press that the Kiski Township Volunteer Fire Department is no longer in service, now the township has a problem," he said. "Every one of these people with a mortgage will be getting notifications that because they don't have a fire department in their area, their rates are going to go through the roof.

"It's like a homeowners policy. Hopefully, you'll never have to use it. Hopefully, we'll never have to show up at your house to put a fire out. We can't tell you that's not going to happen."

Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4701 or at [email protected].

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