Crime & Safety
County to Close on Elkridge Firehouse Land
Officials said that Howard County will purchase one of two properties for the new fire station.
Six months after Howard County officials said they were about land on Bauman Drive for a new fire station, a fire department spokeswoman said that the county will buy some of the land this week.
"The settlement on the first part of the property is scheduled for [March 2]," said Jackie Cutler, spokeswoman for the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services (HCDFRS).
HCDFRS that it was pursuing land on Bauman Drive at Montgomery Road for a fire station to be built in the next few years.
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The new location is needed, said Fire Chief William Goddard, because the current station has on Old Washington Road and is not located in proximity to the population of Elkridge that lies northwest along Montgomery Road.
Additionally, the Elkridge station was designed in 1942 and requires custom-built equipment due to its obsolete configuration.
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The where HCDFRS intends to build the new station currently have for-sale signs outside.
Cutler said one of the properties will reach closing this Friday. She estimates the county will close on the second property "around October" but could not disclose any further details around the real estate transactions because contracts haven't been signed.
A spokesman for that construction of the new Elkridge firehouse would be complete by 2015, at the earliest.
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