The York County Board of Supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to purchase a plot of land at the intersection of Dare Road and North Constitution Drive in Grafton for the relocation of Fire Station One.
The $800,000 purchase price for the 2.98-acre parcel of land is less than the $1.1 million originally envisioned to buy land for the station. The new building still needs to be planned and built, which will bring the cost of the whole project much closer to the $5.9 million the project was estimated to cost in March.
A memorandum from York County Administrator James McReynolds said the board previously authorized him to seek a contract of the purchase of the land for that price. The owners of the land, The Grafton Buffa Group, L.L.C., have already signed a contract for the deal. The purchase cannot move forward unless the supervisors again approve, however.
York County staff are already conducting a boundary survey, title report and Phase I environmental study of the property, according to the memorandum. Should the supervisors OK the deal, settlement would come by the end of February.
The York County Division of Fire and Life Safety has been operating out of Fire Station One at its current location — across the street from the Grafton Shopping Center — since 1960. The new location is less than a mile away.
According to the county, the need to replace the station is twofold: The widening of George Washington Memorial Highway (Route 17) is encroaching on the station’s already small driveway and the building’s small size. In the current building, equipment sometimes has to be moved to access other equipment, which can hamper response times. When it was built, emergency equipment and vehicles were smaller than they are now.
The station is an important one for York County as it houses a water tanker, ladder truck and rescue truck for the entire southern end of the county. By consolidating those resources in a central location, the county does not have to invest in those vehicles for other stations.
The development of the space around the building combined with the widening of Route 17 has convinced county staff that renovation of the current building is not an option. The station serves Grafton, Dare and surrounding areas. It also backs up Tabb, Yorktown and Seaford.
The supervisors meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday in York Hall.
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