TOWN OF WALLKILL—The Pocatello Firehouse in the Town of Wallkill is asking taxpayers to approve bonding for $800,000 worth of improvements and an additional story to their one-story firehouse off of Mount Hope Road.
An additional $414,225 could be added to the cost once interest from the debt payments is factored in, according to a preliminary debt service schedule prepared by Capital Markets Investors, LLC. That would bring the total up to $1,214,225 to taxpayers in the fire district.
Speaking at an informational meeting on April 18, Pocatello Fire District Commissioner, Ron Broas, said the building has not been up to code for a while.
“Right now we don’t have anywhere we can shower, which is a requirement. We have no place to put a laundry [facility]—they [the firefighters] should be washing their turnout gear,” Broas said. “We’re not asking for the moon.”
The second story addition would have a men’s’ and a women’s’ bathroom, a shower, a training room that could be divided in half, a kitchen, a meeting room, and six offices that could double as training rooms, said project Engineer Amador Laput from Fellenzer Engineering, LLP. External and indoor stairwells would be added to provide two egresses as well.
