The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Northwest Oklahoma 2

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  • Dover Fire Department will be getting an expansion soon that is funded by a safety tax.

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March 13, 2010

Needing a little space

Dover Fire Department officials want elbow room

By Cass Rains, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

DOVER — Dover Fire Department soon will be getting bigger.

Chief Bobby Gardner said an expansion of the aging facility was approved by county commissioners last month.

“Basically, all we’re going to do is add a 30-by-70 addition to the fire station,” Gardner said, noting the current station is 40 by 80 feet. “We’re going to try to almost double it.”

A safety tax has allowed the department to purchase more equipment in the past few years, and Gardner said space is at a premium.

“We’ve got room for all the trucks,” the chief said. “We want some room to be able to do maintenance and put our bunker gear on without going outside. We just want some space to do stuff in.”

The current building was constructed 16 or 17 years ago through fundraising. “It wasn’t built by any tax. It was built by donations,” Gardner said.

The 20-member department is all-volunteer, and Gardner said his department works closely with seven other departments in the county.

“We have a county sales tax here, and it’s divided among eight fire departments,” he said. “Anything over a certain price we have to put out for bid.”

He said bids are being taken for the expansion project, and the work will be funded through the Kingfisher County tax.

“This is just something we’ve talked about for two years and is something we were going to do as we have the money to,” he said.

Gardner said when he started the department had a pumper truck, brush truck and tanker. The department now has a pumper truck, three brush trucks, a tanker and a rescue vehicle.

“We’ve just got some equipment, and our Kingfisher County people have been really good to us,” he said. “Our eight fire departments work really well together in buying equipment that will complement one another.”

Gardner said, “That was one of the goals of the sales tax, to buy equipment necessary and come together to do a bigger job.”

Kingfisher’s eight fire departments are Dover, Kingfisher, Big 4, Hennessey, Okarche, Cashion, Loyal and Omega.

Gardner said the departments have responded to major fires in the state in the past two years.

“We’ve got a really active task force here in Kingfisher County,” he said. “We’re just happy to do what we do.”

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