Bluffton breaks ground on $3.5M fire station and emergency center. Here’s where it’ll be
The Bluffton Township Fire District broke ground on its newest station Monday.
Station 38 will be located at 260 Raider Drive, just off the intersection of Bluffton Parkway and Hampton Parkway and adjacent to River Ridge Academy.
The station will serve neighborhoods and businesses in nearby areas including Sun City-Hilton Head, Lawton Station, Hampton Lake, Buckwalter Place, Sandy Pointe, Shell Hall, Hampton Hall, The Farm, Pine Ridge and Pinecrest.
Having a station in the area will not only lead to lower response times but help the department better respond to an increase in need for services as the population and development continues to grow, Bluffton Fire Capt. Lee Levesque said.
A separate building, which will house an emergency operations center, is being constructed directly behind the station, Levesque said. It will be connected to the station by covered walkways.
The construction bid for the buildings was awarded to Fraser Construction. The goal is to have the project completed within the next six to eight months, Levesque said.
“Ideally, we’ll have the station and the emergency operations center hopefully open before the next hurricane season,” he said.
The EOC building will be able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.
Once complete, this will be Bluffton Fire’s ninth station.
The facility is one of three capital improvement projects approved by Beaufort County Council last October. The approval allowed the fire district to issue $6 million in limited general obligation bonds, according to county documents. About $3.5 million is going toward Station 38 and the emergency operations center, Levesque said.
Two other projects the fire district has in the works are moving its Pritchardville station at the intersection of Gibbet and May River roads to New Riverside Drive near the traffic circle and an expansion of its Callawassie station, Levesque said.
Neighboring Jasper County also recently added a new fire station to its department.
Jasper County Fire-Rescue had a grand opening Wednesday for a new station on Mead Road that will primarily serve the unincorporated areas of Cherry Point, a news release from the department said.
