On 1370 WCOA's "Real News with Rick Outzen" Yesterday--Discussing the New Beulah Fire Station

I was asked to appear on Monday Morning's "Real News with Rick Outzen"--the area's #1 rated morning drive radio program.  The topic--the new Beulah Fire Station.

I was asked to appear on yesterday morning's "Real News with Rick Outzen" on 1370 WCOA to discuss the groundbreaking for our newest fire station.  We had a great conversation and discussion about this soon-to-be constructed facility in Beulah.

We also discussed some disinformation that was put out by the other local morning radio host, denigrating the location for the station with inaccurate descriptions of the reason(s) for the siting of the new facility in it's current location.

Rick also asked my opinion about the possibility of luring Twitter and Elon Musk to Escambia County to set up their headquarters here.  

It was an interesting conversation you can listen to here.

See the pictures and watch the video of the Fire Station Groundbreaking, here.

Beulah Fire Station Construction Groundbreaking Friday, May 6th at 11:30AM

Exterior Elevations of the soon to be constructed Beulah Fire Station from the latest design drawings

Escambia County will host a groundbreaking for the newest fire station in the County--the Beulah Fire Station, Station 2,  on 9-Mile Road in Beulah.

The station will be modern, state of the art and will have all the amenities necessary to support the Firefighters and all of their equipment.  This location is the current site of Escambia's Station 2, which for decades was an all-volunteer station.

You can read all about what this station will look like and its size and functionality in this blog post from last year.

Recently, the county has paid for a full-time daytime crew of Firefighters, and the volunteers are running calls in the evenings and on weekends.  By all reports the new arrangement is working very well which is great for this community.

It has been a long road to get us to this point, getting the property acquired from the volunteers, getting the design done, cobbling together the funding, taking the project to bid, and now, finally, getting the construction started.

COVID-19 slowed the process significantly--but we are now back on track.

In addition to the groundbreaking, It will be my intention to dedicate the facility to two men and their families who have sacrificed so much over the years to this community and this station.  One of these individuals, Chief Dwain S. Bradshaw, sacrificed his life in the line of duty to the citizens of Escambia County.  The other, Chief Steve McNair, gave over 50 years of service to the Beulah community and helped build the current station 2.

These two men each gave for their community, gave much.  So it is my intention to honor both men with this facility which I will ask the BCC to support as I bring a resolution to name this, our newst ECFR station, The "Bradshaw-McNair" Fire Station.

I intend to bring the resolution and proclamation for naming this facility in honor of Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. McNair  to the regular Board of County Commissioners Meeting on May 5th, and to present the proclamation to Mr. Bradshaw's family and Mr. McNair the following day at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The entire Beulah community and all those who have served the Beulah Community as Volunteer Firefighters are invited and are encouraged to attend.  We will also have current fire personnel and other dignitaries present as well.  This will be a great day for the families of Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. McNair, the community, for Beulah, for ECFR, and for our entire county.

Everyone is invited to come and witness this great day in Escambia County! 

Read about Chief Dwain S. Bradshaw here and here

Read about Chief Steve McNair here 

Update on Timeline for Construction of New Beulah Fire Station

The glacially slow process of building the new fire station in Beulah has consumed the first five full years of my time on the Board of County Commissioners.

But we're finally on the brink of moving this project forward.

Property has been acquired (took 3 years), design funded, and construction is funded.  Now, all that is left is getting this project out to bid.  According to staff, we are looking at a May groundbreaking.  Below is the tentative schedule for this project based on Building Inspections being able to review and comment on the plans within 30 days and Purchasing having out for bids within 14 days.

• DRC Review Completed and submitted to Building Inspections for their review                    - Jan 19, 2022
• Building Inspections review completed                                                                                             - Feb 18, 2022
• Submit to Purchasing                                                                                                                              - Feb 21, 2022
• Purchasing advertise                                                                                                                              - Mar 8, 2022
• Open Bids                                                                                                                                                  -  Apr 8, 2022
• Take to Board                                                                                                                                           - Apr 21, 2022
• Date of Commencement and Ground Breaking                                                                               - May 5, 2022
• Completion                                                                                                                                               - Jun 30, 2023