McCammon breaks ground on new fire station

MCCAMMON, Idaho (KIFI) - The City of McCammon is looking forward to starting construction on its new fire station. The groundbreaking is scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m.

Bannock County will be paying for the project and EMS personnel that will be on site in the new station. McCammon does have a fire station, but it is incredibly outdated. All of their equipment including their fire engines date back to the 1970's and 1980's. They physically can't upgrade any of the engines because it won't fit in their current station.

There will be several operations housed within the facility besides just fire. In fact, the main motivation for this project is the city has had massive troubles with EMS response time in the past. McCammon doesn't currently have a fire station at all. The time from a 9-1-1 call to EMS arriving on scene in McCammon would usually last somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. Bannock County officials agree that needs to change.

The city is also looking to putting their entire city hall department into the building as well. Currently, the city hall is housed in an old, small train depot on one side of the town. It was donated to them back long ago by the Union Pacific Railroad. Once the city hall moves, town officials are planning on creating the empty space into a Senior Community Center.

The facility will lastly feature a substation for the Bannock County Sheriff's Office. Construction is expected to actually start in about a week and should be completed around springtime next year.