Bulloch County commissioners by a 4-2 vote last week approved a $1.75 million contract to purchase an existing commercial or industrial building and its five-acre site on U.S. Highway 301 south of I-16 for use as a fire station and county Fire Department training site.

The building and grounds are those of the Accurate Equipment Sales and Auction business, and the county’s purchase from business owners Ronald and Patricia Copeland isn’t final yet, but  is set to close on April 20. Unless a subsequent appraisal indicates a property value more than 10% lower than the agreed price or the seller fails to provide a warranty deed or remedy any problems indicated by an environmental audit, the county is committed to the purchase.

The property becomes part of a multi-step plan to reassign the identity of an existing unstaffed fire station to this site and relocate or build yet another station on a site the county owns through a conditional gift on State Route 119.

Speaking to the public during the Feb. 3 meeting, commissioners Chairman David Bennett pitched this approach as part of a strategy to catch up on rural public safety “infrastructure” now that Bulloch County has more than 84,500 residents and is projected to continue adding about 1,000 people a year for the next 20 years.

“When you look at the key functions of local government, Number One of them is public safety. …” Bennett said. “So, our infrastructure has not kept up with growth. … But we have a responsibility to provide fire protection in this county, and there are many places in this county that have no fire protection. What we’re looking to do is just simply maximize the resources that we have to provide fire protection and decrease people’s insurance rates.”

Currently, the Bulloch County Fire Department’s Station 13 is an unstaffed station in a metal building on a county-owned half-acre lot on Akins-Anderson Road, off U.S. 301 South behind and beyond the AllGreen Services headquarters. Over a year ago now the BCFD and Emergency Medical Service upgraded the Register Station, which is Station 3, to a 24-hour staffed station, and its service area overlaps that of Station 13.

“So, if we move Fire Station 13 further south on Highway 301 it removes some of the duplication that we already have between Fire Station No. 13 and the Register Fire Station,” Bennett said.  “In addition to that, it provides some coverage to people that don’t have fire protection right now.”

He used a PowerPoint slide show and mentioned a plan the county Fire Department and Public Safety leadership drew up in 2022 for where fire stations could be needed, a total of 23 eventually. Initially, the plan suggested putting a fire station somewhere on Union Church Road, Bennett said, and noted that the property to be purchased was about half a mile from Union Church Road, but not on it.

“In addition to doing that, if we put a fire station out there, yeah, that’s five acres of land, but it gives us more training space, and that’s something that we significantly lack in this county right now,” Bennett said. “Currently we do all our training for the Fire Department at Station No. 7, which is in Brooklet.”

BCFD Chief Ben Tapley agreed with these comments. They noted that Station 7 is on just half an acre. For years there was “a verbal understanding” with owners of a lot behind the Brooklet station that it could be used “as overflow” for training, but this is no longer an option, Bennett said.

ISO ratings, again

His slides included a photo of the department’s live-burn practice structure made from two stacked semi-truck containers behind the Brooklet station, where parked vehicles were taking up much of the lot that same morning. According to Bennett, at least a two-acre training site is needed to help improve the county’s fire safety ratings with the Insurance Services Office, or ISO, a company that supplies information to the insurance industry.

ISO fire safety ratings range from “1” for the best available protection, to “10” for no recognized public fire response.

While the BCFD has obtained a split rating, of ISO 4 for areas within five road miles of one of its stations and within 1,000 feet of a hydrant, and ISO 4Y for those farther from water but still within five road miles of a station, several areas of Bulloch County still have a rating of 10. A 10 rating “equates to no fire protection” and brings “higher insurance rates,” Bennett said.

‘Ready-made’ building

In addition to a five-acre site with space for firefighter training, the Accurate Equipment property includes the 9,600-foot steel building on what he said is an eight-inch-thick concrete floor. It has eight roll-out bays.

“So this is a building that’s already ready-made for heavy equipment, like fire apparatus,” Bennett said. “There’s five acres of land there. So it will accommodate the complete fire station, the training facility, a logistics warehouse and a future site for a manned, 24-hours a day fire and EMS station.”

However, it will for now start out as an unstaffed fire station, he said.

A different reach

The current Station 13 location reaches, within five road miles, 583 “stick-built” homes and 409 mobile homes, according to the county staff’s slideshow chart. However, they noted that about half of those homes are also covered by the Register Station, which is 3.8 miles from current Station 13.

If the Accurate Equipment site becomes the new Station 13, its coverage will reportedly include 227 stick-built homes, 197 mobile homes, four gas stations, one motel and 1,584,742 square feet of industrial buildings.

The proposed new fire station site is very close to Bruce Yawn Commerce Park on the same side of U.S. 301 and I-16 as that industrial and commercial area, which is home to the Ajin USA metal automotive body parts factory. The SECO Ecoplastic extruded plastic auto parts plant is on the other side of I-16 but within five road miles.

However, these industries are also in the five-mile area covered by the current Station 13, Tapley confirmed when asked by Commissioner Nick Newkirk.

Why no donation?

The proximity of the Accurate Equipment building and site to Development Authority of Bulloch County property prompted some critics of the $1.75 million purchase to ask why the DABC did not donate a site for a county fire station.

Kerri Borgman, a Bulloch County resident speaking during public comments time, which was before Bennett’s presentation, said she is “a huge supporter of public safety,” working in that field herself, but as a concerned citizen had a problem with the price being paid.

“Has it ever come up that maybe you should ask the Bulloch County (Development) Authority to donate (land) at the said, proposed industry site that you want to put it near?” she asked.

Bennett said there had been discussions with Development Authority leaders about this, and Tapley said he has suggested it more than once. However, noting that the county obtained a $3.15 million estimate from a contractor last year to build a 6,000-square-foot fire station, Bennett said that even if the DABC donated property, the  county would still have to build a building, while this one is included in the $1.75 million price.

Bulloch Action Coalition co-founders Cassandra Mikell and Lawton Sack also voiced questions and criticism about the purchase. Among other things, Mikell said the county’s plan would place a fire station “on some of the most expensive land near the interstate in Bulloch County.” Sack had his own map of radius circles drawn around fire stations and observed that areas near Portal on the north end of the county and elsewhere in the southern part would still not be reached.

And then, Station 17

Previously one 5.5-acre site, on Georgia Highway 119 North at Cherrywood Drive, in the Eldora area in southeasternmost Bulloch, was donated to the county for placement of a fire station, and possibly also an ambulance station. Another step in the county’s plan is a proposal to move the current Station 13 building and apparatus to the Highway 119 property and establish it as Station 17, while redesignating the building being bought from the Copelands as Station 13.

The donor’s agreement for the Highway 119 property requires a fire station to be established there within a time limit, and the county now has seven years left or the land will revert to the previous owner, Bennett noted.

Proposed Station 17 would provide fire protection to 542 site-built homes, of which 177 are within 1,000 feet of a hydrant, and 441 mobile homes, 105 of which are within 1,000 feet of a hydrant, plus two commercial buildings, one of which is near a hydrant, according to his report.

10-year financing

County Manager Chris Eldridge spoke briefly about how the county will pay for the $1.75 million purchase, which wasn’t included in the annual budget. Having consulted the county’s financial advisors, the county staff is suggesting a 10-year lease-purchase arrangement with a 4% annual interest cost through the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, to be repaid from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

When Newkirk asked the total repayment cost, county Chief Financial Officer Kristie King gave an estimate of $2.6 million but said this is for borrowing $2 million. The additional $250,000 principal could go toward insulating the bays and also work at the Eldora site, Eldridge said.

Newkirk suggested placing a training center on some of a 50-acre site the county purchased at Portal for a Recreation and Parks Department park and buying a $170,000 basic steel building for a fire station to be placed on Development Authority land.

“I think there are some other options out there. I feel like we’re being pressured into this, being  rushed into this, and the numbers just don’t add up,” Newkirk said.

Eldridge asserted that it was a limited time opportunity that could go away if the commissioners did not act.

“It was an opportunity that Chief (Tapley) brought to us; it’s not just for fire,” Eldridge said. “We’re looking at EMS, we’re looking for the future of Bulloch County, and this was a way to look ahead instead of just looking at today. We’re just trying to catch up, because obviously that I-16 corridor is going to grow quickly.”

Commissioner Timmy Rushing made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Anthony Simmons, to approve the purchase contract. Commissioners Ray Davis and Ray Mosley joined in voting “yes.” Newkirk and Commissioner Toby Conner voted “no.”