The Dawson County Board of Commissioners last Thursday unanimously approved the purchase of 5 acres to construct a new fire station, sheriff's office precinct and library.

The new fire station will replace and relocate Station 2, currently at War Hill Park Road and Hwy. 53, to a lot on Hwy. 53, west of Dawson Forest Road. The current facility is rented on leased property.

Director of Dawson County Emergency Services Billy Thurmond said the county has needed a permanent home for several years.

Voters approved the new station as a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax IV project.

"It's been five years since the board of commissioners determined we needed a new facility," said Chairman of the Dawson County Board of Commissioners Mike Berg. "The building is not big enough for the new fire engine that is needed for that area."

Berg said he started pushing about a year ago to find property and spend the allocated SPLOST IV funds for the new station.

"Had the board done it four or five years ago, it would have been a cheaper price than it is today," he said

The board approved spending $950,000 on the property. Thurmond estimates the station's cost to be between $850,000 and $1 million.

Although a new fire station was approved for SPLOST IV funds, the idea to incorporate a sheriff's office precinct in the building and construct a library on the property came on its heels.

"We are looking now at trying to do joint facility type structures," Berg said. "The property will serve well for a library branch in the future. It's exactly where the library study said it needed to go. And having a police annex, a place where people can go in and get reports and act as a staging station for those zone officers, it will serve a lot of different folks in that area."

Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle, who believes a new precinct has been needed in the area almost as long as the outlet mall has been in the county, said approximately 80-85 percent of sheriff's office business occurs near or along the Ga. 400 corridor.

"For us, the new precinct is another area for us to serve the public better," he said.

Once the new precinct opens, Carlisle said he hopes to have personnel at the facility at all times, with zone officers reporting in and out from that office, rather than driving in and out of town.

"It gives us more visibility in the area, and will keep us from wasting so much time driving between 400 and back to town all the time," he said.

With a fire station, sheriff's office precinct and library on the property, Berg said he could see the area develop into a government annex piece located outside the city limits of Dawsonville.

Thurmond said he hopes to see the new station fully operational with fire and EMS personnel, as well as a volunteer force, within 12 to 18 months. "We're looking forward to getting started on it and getting it going to provide a better protection for that zone that Station 2 covers," he said.

The new library, approved as a SPLOST V project, would take three to five years longer, Berg anticipated. "The library is on the SPLOST V budget, so that is years to come. The money allocated for that is $6 million, with hopes the state will match that, so we'll have a $6 million library," he said.

E-mail Michele Hester at michele@dawsonnews.com.

Originally published Wednesday, February 13, 2008