FIREFIGHTERS BUILD STATION FOR DELTA

DELTA -- Thanks to hard work and initiative on the part of the Delta firefighters, residents of this southwest Cape Girardeau County community now have a $75,000 fire station that actually cost only $38,000 to build.

The five-bay, one-story, 3,864-square-foot building is located at 211 E. State St., near the Delta Post Office. The new fire station replaces a tiny building that was located beneath the town's elevated water tower.

"It (the former fire station) was so small that it took two men to back a fire engine into the building. There was only inches of space between each fire truck," said Charles King, secretary of the Delta Area Fire Protection District.

"The old building was just that and nothing else. There was no room for offices or training and no restroom facilities."

King said the new Delta Fire Station is fully insulated. The five-door equipment bay is heated with gas heaters. The chief's office and adjoining training and meeting room is electric-heated.

The fire station has men's and women's restrooms and showers for cleanup after a fire.

Before the end of the month, the fire station will be equipped with a telephone.

Work on the new fire station began in July 1993. The fire station went into service in October 1993, but the final interior work in the chief's office and training/meeting room wasn't completed until this month.

King said the fire station building is valued at around $75,000, but the actual cost will only be $38,000. That's because all of the construction was done by Delta firefighters, who used a lot of donated materials, in addition to the $12,000 worth of heaters, wiring and plumbing that was purchased for the fire station.

The building itself -- without furnishing and utilities - cost $26,900.

Besides donations, King said Delta firefighters were also able to obtain used building materials, which further reduced the cost of the building.

King said the Delta Fire Station was already paid for when the firefighters moved in. He said, "Each year, starting in the early 1980s, when the board made up our budget, we set aside about $2,000 at first, then, later on, $4,000 a year for our capital improvement building fund."

He said the new fire station has boosted the morale among the firefighters.

"The boys were down here practically every night since we started, working real hard to get it completed," he said. "They're real proud of what they've done, and so is the board."

The Delta Area Fire Protection District was first organized in 1969 as the Delta Civil Defense Department, with one 1949 fire engine.

In 1981, voters approved a reorganization of the fire department into a fire district. The district's boundaries extend southwestward along the Cape Girardeau-Scott County line from west of Nash Road to Randles, then west to near Arbor, north to the Diversion Channel, and eastward to County Road 219, near the Nash Road. The district's tax rate is currently 20 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

The Delta Fire Department has one chief, Carson Kelley, two training officers and 14 active firefighters.

The department has four pieces of firefighting equipment: a 1979 International/Smeal pumper fire truck with a 750 gallon water tank and a 750 gallon per minute (gpm) pump; a 1979 International chassis/locally constructed 800 gallon water tanker truck, with 500 gpm pump; a 1968 Jeep, four-wheel drive, auxiliary pumper with a 250 gallon tank and 300 gpm pump; and a 1953 military Jeep, four-wheel drive "brush buggy" for fighting brush and field fires, equipped with a 60 gallon tank and 125 gpm auxiliary pump.

With the completion of the new fire station, King said the Delta Fire Protection District will begin saving for the purchase of a newer pumper fire engine. He said, "First, we need to purchase a used truck chassis to build another water tanker for water supply. Then, we plan to acquire a newer pumper fire engine which will increase our pumping capacity to three pumper engines."