Fire department moves to new site on south Broadway

The Imperial Volunteer Fire Department (IVFD) moved trucks and equipment into its new home at 315 Broadway Monday night.
At their Oct. 7 meeting last year, the Imperial city council approved the purchase of the Harchelroad Motors Inc. building at the south end of Broadway for $650,000.
The purchase included the two small buildings to the west of the larger one.
At the October meeting, Mayor Dwight Coleman said  the city at one time had considered building a fire hall at the former Wellington School property. He had also suggested building a hall in the Cornerstone location in Imperial.
Funding for the concrete work and new garage doors came out of the Community Development Fund.
The new fire hall is 14,000 square feet, considerably larger than the present hall they outgrew, IVFD Chief Doug Mitchell said. The two smaller buildings behind it have 720 square feet of space each.
City Clerk/Administrator Jo Leyland isn’t sure what the old fire hall will be used for at this point.
“The utilities (dept.) have some trucks that normally sit outside so those may go in there for now,” Leyland said.
When IVFD is called to a fire, “it’s a bit crowded” at the old location, Mitchell said.
“I think this’ll be great,” he added.
After their regular meeting at the new hall Monday, IVFD members moved their gear and the trucks to the new location.
The trucks traveled south on Broadway to their new home with their lights on.
“All of the equipment we need to fight a fire or do a rescue is at the new site now,” Mitchell said. The rest of the IVFD equipment will be moved to the new location by the end of June.
Mitchell praised all the hard work by the firefighters in getting the new building ready.

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