By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Bronson officials will host a ribbon cutting Saturday for the new $1.85 million Bronson Fire Station located on the north end of town next to the Levy County Extension Center.

            Visitors will be treated to tours of the facility and volunteers will serve hotdogs, hamburgers, cookies, and sodas. The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Everyone is welcome.

            The town doesn’t have a certificate of occupancy at this point. The CO won’t be granted until the town finishes the interior sprinklers and other features inside the fire station. The building is functional for a ribbon cutting.

            Fire Chief Dennis Russell said a formal grand opening will be held at a later date when state legislators are invited. Former State Sen. Rob Bradley and former State Rep. Charlie Stone won passage of a $1.8 million state appropriations bill to fund the firehouse.

            “It’s something the city definitely needs. It’s going to be a big asset to the community,” Russell said.

            Construction of the firehouse began about a year and a half ago. Lack of a well delayed the opening for months. The building probably won’t formally open for use by the fire department until near the end of May.

            Southeast Drilling, LLC., the company that drilled an onsite well for the fire station’s interior fire suppression system, says it will finish its work before the Saturday ribbon cutting. Central Florida Electric Cooperative was expected to turn on the station’s electricity Thursday.

            Drilling the well came with challenges. The giant drill rig hit an underground cavern at one point and the rear wheels of the rig fell into the deep hole.

            The company moved the rig to another location on the town’s property but hit a dry hole. The third site was a good one. Instead of drilling the hole, the company pounded the pipe casing into the ground to avoid another collapse.

            Southeast Drilling, LLC is the same company that rehabilitated the town’s two well pumps that provide water to city customers. When that job was finished the company moved to the new fire station.

            City Manager Susan Beaudet said the town originally hoped to pump water to the fire station through existing town water mains before an unforeseen problem surfaced.

            The city’s building inspector at the time, Scott Thomas, didn’t notify the town that the new fire station would require an interior fire suppression system, Beaudet said.

            When David Greenbaum arrived to take Thomas’s place, he notified the town that a fire suppression system would be needed. The city discovered it wasn’t able to provide enough water pressure through existing city water mains to meet state requirements for the fire suppression system.

            Town council members eventually decided the only option was to drill a well at the site to supply adequate pressure to the fire station’s interior fire sprinklers.

            Total cost of the well has swelled to $230,000 and may have compromised funding for a helipad and training center. Russell said he has set aside money for the helipad but he wants to finish the entire building to make sure he has enough money left over for the helicopter landing site.

            The fire station is an impressive building equipped with eight bay doors, four on each side, sleeping facilities for firefighters, an emergency operations office, a firefighter’s laundry room equipped to expel gases that might be shed by the bunker gear as it is washed and a kitchen.

            Russell said he doesn’t know if the Department of Public Safety and the department’s bosses, the Levy County Commissioners, will want to park an ambulance at the station and house ambulance personnel in the building. Russell works in maintenance at the county Department of Public Safety.

            The ribbon cutting comes on the eve of a decision Monday by the town council to choose a new mayor. The city will swear in two new council members, Franklin Schuler, and Virginia Phillips. The new council will choose a mayor and vice mayor.

            The current mayor, Robert Partin, will be on hand for the ribbon cutting Saturday.

            Town council members have decided to use the city’s current fire station next door to Town Hall as a Department of Public Safety site for parking trucks and heavy equipment. The town is preparing to reroof the building.

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Town of Bronson Regular Meeting April 24, 2023; Posted April 27, 2023