Ground broken on fire station

RANCHVALE - Wednesday morning, state senators, city and county officials and volunteer firefighters gathered to break ground for Curry County's newest fire station in Ranchvale.

Construction on the station will begin as soon as the design is approved and it should be finished by May.

"This is one of our big capital outlay projects and a very important project for the county," said County Manager Lance Pyle. "We met with the area's legislators and secured their support for the project, as well as the governor's office."

Pyle made trips to Santa Fe to gather support for the project and overall $400,000 was secured.

The contract for its construction was awarded to Griego and Sons Construction Inc., which is still in the design phase, according to Gerald Griego.

Griego said the plan is to create an 80-by-80-foot metal building, a septic tank, and to drill a well.

Fire Chief Kenneth Davis, who first proposed adding a fire station to Ranchvale and whose family also once donated the land for the Ranchvale school, donated the land for the project.

According to Davis, plans for the station started when the Clovis school district announced its plans to close Ranchvale school, citing the distance from emergency services as one of the motivating factors.

Davis said he promised the district he would arrange to have a volunteer fire station added to Ranchvale, but before he could fulfill that promise the decision to close the school had already been made.

The construction of the fire station remained on the table however and after a few grass fires in the area it was decided by Davis and his fellow fire officials that adding a station to the area would be important to expand the county's coverage in case of more severe grass fires in the future.

"We're in a very vulnerable area. When I was a kid growing up here, this was 80 percent farmland, which wasn't as vulnerable to grass fires," Davis said. "Now it's flipped and we're 80 percent grass and there are lots of people that live out here. Before a grass fire could burn itself out and never come close to someone's house, but now our focus is to protect people's properties."

Davis said that after talking with Clovis Fire Chief Mike Nolen he learned the expansion might also qualify Clovis for more state funds because the Clovis department's equipment would not be spread over as broad an area.

"This will be a great asset for the community of Ranchvale and all the volunteer fire departments," said Curry County Commissioner Chet Spear. "All the departments chip in to help each other out and this will be another position they'll be able to take advantage of."

Spear also credited several of the surrounding fire departments for donating vehicles and equipment for use at the new station.

Ben Roberts is in line to serve as the facility's superintendent.