First Stand-Alone Fire Station Coming Soon to Saltillo, MS

SALTILLO – By this time next year, Saltillo should be in possession of its first stand-alone fire station.

The nearly $2 million fire station on Turner Industrial Park Road has been put out for bids. The first advertising went out last week and the bid opening is set for Jan. 9, 2025.

“It is a 300-day construction contract so it should be completed by November 2025,” said Pryor Morrow architect William Dexter.

The design features a storm shelter for employees inside the concrete engine bay. The office and living areas are metal stud construction. The exterior has brick up 3 feet on the outside to tie the fire station in with other buildings in the area.

Inside, the department’s pride and support of the high school will be on full display.

“The accent walls inside the living areas will be Saltillo blue, as will the tile in the kitchen,” said Mayor Copey Grantham. “And there is the blue fire truck, which is very popular in the community.”

The big question is will the construction bids come in within the city’s tight $1.9 million budget? The bulk of that money comes from a $1.5 million allocation from the state legislature, so Grantham has named the station in honor of Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann. Another $100,000 came from federal COVID-19 relief finds. The Saltillo Board of Aldermen has approved up to $300,000 in general obligation bonds to cover the remainder.

“We have two alternates in the bids to try to keep the price at $1.9 million — the circular drive and a sprinkler system,” Grantham said. “The drive makes the station look complete and more professional. Plus, you’re not having to turn around in the middle of the road to back into the bay.”

The circular drive is estimated at $200,000. It would allow the fire trucks to drive behind the station and enter through the back of the engine bay, preventing the need to back the engine into the bay. The dirt work is in the base bid, allowing the city to add the secondary drive at a later date, if needed.

The fire suppression sprinklers cost about $75,000 but require a 6-inch water supply line. There is only a 4-inch line serving the area at the moment. The $800,000 cost to upgrade the water main would derail the project. Grantham hopes to get the sprinkler system installed and use future grant money to enlarge the water line.

Since the construction business is normally slow in the winter, officials are hoping for several competitive bids to keep the project within budget. If the bids do go over the budget by a small amount, Grantham is willing to go back to his board to ask to increase the bond amount to get the alternates.

“If we wait, the price is only going to go up. Plus there are ways to get more money,” Grantham said. “There are a lot of grant opportunities we can look at.”

The scale of the fire station has been trimmed several times since it was proposed more than a year ago. Increases in construction costs forced the project to be downsized from the original 10,000 square feet to around 4,000 square feet. The original plan called for three large double bays. The new plans only have two smaller bays, but they are designed to be able to accommodate the ladder truck the department will need in the near future.

The redesign has one administrative office to be shared by the chief, deputy chief and shift captain. There are two bedrooms that each sleep three. That will accommodate the switch in the future from a volunteer force to paid fire fighters on three shifts.

There are also two separate bathrooms, which will be needed if the department ever has a female firefighter, Grantham said.

Since the summer of 2001, the Saltillo Fire Department has been housed in a 58,000-square-foot former furniture factory, along with city administration and courts, as well as the water, police and public works departments. That building is 50 years old and no longer suits the needs of the fire department.

The Saltillo Fire Department is a hybrid, with a handful of full-time employees augmented by up to 30 volunteer firefighters. In recent years, the number of full-time employees has grown to six and allows at least one to be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The department has held a Class 6 rating from the Mississippi State Rating Bureau since 2017. To drop to a Class 5 rating, one of the things the city would have to do is staff all three shifts with at least three firefighters.

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