Pikeville gets federal funds for fire station
By Anessa Myers
Published in News on March 31, 2009 1:46 PM
Pikeville residents hope that when Vice President Joe Biden comes to town Wednesday he will bring good news for the Pikeville-Pleasant Grove Volunteer Fire Department.
"We're all excited," said Ken Jones, assistant chief and fire department vice president.
Fire Chief Wesley Wooten said Biden will also bring Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, but added that he isn't exactly sure what the men are coming to say.
"They just told us that he was going to make an announcement," Wooten said. "We've not heard anything other than that."
They are hoping that he will also bring good news -- that the department will be receiving federal stimulus money for a new facility it is building on the corner of Pikeville-Princeton and Hooks Grove Church roads.
"I think it has something to do with us constructing a new fire station," Wooten said.
According to Associated Press reports, Biden will announce funding for the facility.
The department plans to break ground on the more than $1 million new fire station facility in April, Jones said.
Currently, Wooten and Jones said, the new station will be paid for through grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Neither said they had exact figures in front of them as to how much of the more than $1 million would be in grants and how much would be in loans.
The new facility will include four bays for fire trucks, living quarters for men and women, offices for fire officials and officers, a conference room, laundry facilities, kitchen and a training room, among other amenities.
"It will meet National Fire Protection Agency standards," Wooten said.
Fire department officials said they don't know exactly when Biden will be at the station.
"We just know he is coming in the afternoon," Wooten said.
"They kept it on the hush-hush," Jones said.