Swissvale Fire Dept. Holding Ground Breaking Ceremony for New Station

The is holding a ground breaking ceremony for the construction of its at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

The new fire station, located at the old Strathers Funeral Home space at 7400 Irvine St., will be the home to both the volunteer and paid firefighters. Currently, the borough’s paid staff operates out of the borough building and the volunteers out of their own station on Washington Street. This consolidation of operations is a direct result of a recommendation from a peer review study of the fire delivery system for the borough conducted in 2009 by the governor’s office.

The department hopes to have the project completed by the spring of 2012.

“This has been a monumental task to get to this point” says . “There were a series of opportunities and events that allowed us this great opportunity to achieve this goal. I would like to thank the elected officials, the DCED and especially the volunteer fire department who really stepped up to make this project a reality.”

The project will allow for better service to the community while reducing duplicate costs associated with having two departments and two separate stations. The estimated savings will be $1.2 million dollars over the next 15 years, according to the department.

This project is funded in part by the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development through the Community Tourism and Infrastructure Fund, who provided a grant of $175,000 towards the project.

The volunteer fire department will be using $250,000 in proceeds from the sale of their existing fire station and the balance will be financed with a two percent low interest loan from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, along with another low interest tax free mortgage arranged through Volunteer Financial Services and paid for by the volunteer fire department.

The Borough of is one of the few communities in Allegheny County served by a combination paid and volunteer fire department. The departments respond to about 1,000 emergency medical calls and 500 fire calls annually.

The paid staff is also responsible for the enforcement of all building related codes and ordinances, including building permits, occupancy permits as well as property maintenance and fire code violations. Combined, they issue nearly 1,000 building and occupancy permits and perform in excess of 2,000 inspections.