Goshen Township Fire/EMS Department currently operates a temporary station, located at 6576 Oakland Road. The township plans to build a permanent Station 19 at the site after seeing the station took about half the calls and had improved response times.

Goshen Township Fire/EMS Department currently operates a temporary station, located at 6576 Oakland Road. The township plans to build a permanent Station 19 at the site after seeing the station took about half the calls and had improved response times.
By Kelly Cantwell
Editor

When the Goshen Township Fire/EMS Department opened a temporary station on the west side of the township, they were only going to use it until the Ohio Department of Transportation finished working on the bridge on state Route 28.

ODOT’s work on the bridge cut off the fire department from the route emergency vehicles typically used to respond to calls on the west side and would have significantly increased response times.

So, the department found a former auto repair shop that had an office and a garage big enough to put one fire truck and one ambulance in, although the truck only just fits with no room to spare.

“It worked very well for us during the bridge closure. We were able to greatly improve response times,” said Chief Steve Pegram.

While the current station is central in the township, much of the township’s population lives on the west side. In addition to taking 45-50 percent of the calls, sometimes response vehicles from Station 19 would get to the fire and put it out before a response vehicle from Station 18 made it to the scene, Pegram said.

He has seen enough benefits that he decided to ask the township trustees to make the station permanent. The trustees agreed, and during the June 14 meeting Trustees Bob Hausermann and Lisa Allen approved the first of three motions they need to approve to take out a $2 million 29-year bond to pay for the purchase on the property and to fund building the station. Trustee Lois Pappas Swift was absent.

The department is currently still operating under a lease agreement and is under contract to purchase the land.

The bond will be paid out of the current capital budget, Pegram said.

He hopes to close on the property this summer, bid the project in the late summer or fall and break ground in late 2016 or early 2017. The property is 2.7 acres so they plan to build the new station behind the temporary one, and demolish the temporary station once the new station is built.

“It wasn’t built to be a fire house,” Pegram said.

Station 19 currently has and will have one crew that will take either the truck or the ambulance to scene, called a first emergency first station. Station 18 has crew to staff both a truck and an ambulance at all times. The department may add more crew to Station 19 in the future.

“We expect that area will get busier as it continues to grow,” Pegram said.