Demopolis Fire Department gets new home

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 22, 2005

If you are looking for the Demopolis Fire Department’s Station Two on Walnut Street the bad news is you need to keep looking. The good news is you do not have to look far.

This week the department made the move from their 217 North Walnut St. location to their new home of 211 North Cedar St.

The move sent the department to the building, which formerly served as Marengo Motors. Demopolis Fire Chief George Davenport said the move is almost complete with the exception of some minor details.

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“We are pretty much completely moved over there,” Davenport said. “There are some little things we need to do, but we are pretty much there.”

The building had been vacated for quite some time. However, Davenport said the move had been fairly easy requiring only some minor clean up.

“The move was not really that hard,” Davenport said. “Everything was already in place. Prior to moving we just had to clean up a little bit.”

The department made the move to provide the space formerly occupied by firemen for city hall improvements.

Sweeping changes are on deck, which will include several, favorable and much needed renovations such as new council chambers. Davenport said in light of the coming improvements the building was the most feasible place for them to relocate.

“It was really the only place for us to go,” Davenport said. “They had gotten the grant money for this building and it was really the only good place to go.”

The department will not be left out in the cold, as their new location is merely a temporary home until a new home can be built. Davenport said the city is planning a new building to house the department and some other city departments.

“They will be building a new municipal complex,” Davenport said. “They are working on plans for that. It will house the police department, the fire department and court. It is going to be a nice facility.”

The municipal complex is in the early planning stages so a target date for completion has not been set. Funding will be a big factor in how quickly the complex is built.

Davenport said as far as the old station is concerned they are just putting the finishing touches on their move.

“The only thing we are doing now is getting heating and cooling units and figuring out where to store it,” Davenport said. “If we ever need it in the future we will have it to replace one if it goes out. We are just getting light fixtures and things like that.”