Copper fire station’s remodel is heating up

There are about eight jagged, round holes in the wall next to Copperopolis Fire Protection District Chief Keith Cantrell’s desk. Above them a sheet of paper dated Jan. 20 and bearing an equal number of signatures reads: “The remodel has started.”

Fire station jokes aside, after getting the go-ahead from the Calaveras County Planning Commission last week, the station’s nearly $900,000 remodel is, if not started, then well on its way.
 

The project will gut and redo the main building, add more office space, expand the station’s single fire engine bay and add a second bay, along with converting both bays to drive-throughs, which increasingly is an industry standard.

It will also double the station’s living quarters — now a dorm room and one bedroom, with one and a half baths — to four bedrooms and an additional full bathroom.

The existing living quarters are getting cramped for existing staff, who share one shower, said Cantrell. The additional bathroom and bedrooms will help accommodate female firefighters, Cantrell added.

“At this point, it is safe to say we are functionally obsolete,” Cantrell said of the existing station.

Other improvements include a 60-by-100-foot structure to house engines not currently in use and an expanded public parking lot out front. Public meetings at the firehouse can draw more cars than the current handful of parking spots can hold.

The remodel is being funded by a $739,500 loan and a $130,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Facilities Loan Program.

The Planning Commission approved a zoning amendment, variance and conditional use permit the station needed for the expansion. Next stop: the county Board of Supervisors.