New home for a ‘good team’: St. Matthews breaks ground for fire department building

ST. MATTHEWS – St. Matthews town officials gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for a new fire department building.

The approximately 3,000-square-foot building will be located at 220 Bynum Street in St. Matthews. The town’s fire department had been located for nearly 70 years at 1313 Bridge St.

St. Matthews Fire Department Chief Gregory Sandlin said the fire department has outgrown the old building. A new facility will help the department serve the community and surrounding areas more efficiently, he said.

“That facility at 1313 Bridge St. was given over to the fire department by the highway department in 1955. It was the old highway maintenance yard. So the fire department’s been there for 68 years,” Sandlin said.

“It’s not conducive to a fire department because it had asphalt driveways. So we’ve muddled through over the last 68 years there, but we’ve really outgrown it. We’ve built a good team of firefighters. We’ve got a good roster, and it was just time for a change,” he said.

State Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, secured a $750,000 state appropriation to help the town fund a new fire department building at the site of the old National Guard Armory.

“It’s very exciting to finally be able to do something that’s probably needed to be done for quite a long time. For as long as I’ve been alive, and as long as I can remember living in St. Matthews, the fire department has always been in the same place,” Ott said.

“It’s just been outgrown. So by building this facility, we’re allowing our firefighters to stretch out a little bit. At the same time, we’re also leaving room for other … maintenance departments from across the town to be able to expand and do their jobs better,” he said.

Sandlin said the new fire department will be located at the old National Guard Armory’s motor pool facility.

“I fell in love with the building the first time I saw it. … We’re going to be adding an approximately 3,000-square-foot addition for living quarters, kitchen, training room and offices,” he said.

Sandlin continued, “Once they start construction, they told me it would be five months from the start of construction to handing over the keys. I’m hoping by the end of February they will actually be over here … getting everything going.”

Sumter-based Hardee Construction is the contractor for the project. Lexington-based Craig A Otto Architect Inc. serves as the project’s architectural designers.

St. Matthews Town Council members, St. Matthews Mayor Helen Carson, St. Matthews Town Administrator Rosyl Warren and Calhoun County Administrator John McLauchlin were among the city and county officials on hand for Wednesday’s ceremony.

Carson’s glad the town fulfilled Sandlin’s request for better accommodations for the fire department.

“It was just an idea at that time. People were just barely talking about it, but the more we talked about it, the more we realized that this could be something that could really benefit the fire department,” Carson said.

Sandlin said, “This building means everything to me. We have enough room around here to expand our training. We can put different training props out here. We’ll really be able to bring our training up to a new level.”

Carson said, “We hope that the community is going to come and embrace this new structure that we’re planning to do here. Hopefully the residents of this community will feel as if they’re much safer by having the fire department here.”

“The other part is that this is going to allow our public works department to actually take the building that the fire department is vacating. They have not had adequate facilities for a very long time,” the mayor said.

Town Councilwoman Dee Dee Prickett, a longtime fire department volunteer, said, “It gets in your blood, and it’s hard to get out. So I’m proud to be part of St. Matthews’ community, the fire department, the town and everything it represents. Hats off to the men and women who wear the red stripe. More power to you.”

Norman Knight, who served as chief of the St. Matthews Fire Department from 1979 to 2000, said the building will be a great addition to the community and thanked city council members for their vision.

“This new building is more than a building. … It’s a home. You spend a third of your life at that place. You raise your children, you see your firefighters’ children raised there. Not only do the full-time firefighters have the ability to stay there and be able to answer calls at a moment’s notice, but it gives the volunteers a place to go and congregate, to meet or be together to provide the service,” Knight said.

Calhoun County Rural Fire District Coordinator Jeff Price, who served as chief of the St. Matthews Fire Department from 2020 to 2021, also attended the ceremony.

“This is well overdue. … When I started with the town, we basically had two rooms that we survived in as full-time firefighters. … So this is going to be tremendous,” Price said.

Sandlin said, “I have 23 volunteers and myself and two other paid staff. We do 24-48 shifts. So there’s always a firefighter on duty in St. Matthews. I feel really blessed that I’ve got really good volunteers that really want to come, help the community and get better at what they do.”