St. Francis Fire Station

St. Francis receives KAN STEP award for fire station

The City of St. Francis has been awarded a $390,300 KAN STEP grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce to construct a new fire station. St. Francis is located in Cheyenne County in extreme northwest Kansas.

The facility has an estimated retail cost of $737,970. Volunteer labor on the project is valued at $347,670.

The overall dimensions of the St. Francis Fire Station project are 80 feet x 140 feet for 11,200 sq. feet of usable floor space. The building includes three fire bay doors and a two-door bay for EMT Service. The truck and EMT bay areas also have a trough drain; there is storage above the additional rooms. The fire and EMT station also has an additional meeting, kitchen, restrooms, file storage rooms, separate EMT and Fire Station offices and an Emergency Preparedness office.

Dan Hall, BG Consultants, Manhattan, is the architect. Grant administration will be provided by Michelle Kippes of Northwest Kansas Planning and Development. The volunteer "sparkplugs" for the project are Dale Weeks and JR Landenberger. Kansas Rural Water Association will provide inspection services and technical assistance to the volunteers.

KAN STEP is a self-help program that enables small communities to make major infrastructure improvements. Local people volunteer labor and services or "sweat equity," while the Kansas Department of Commerce provides funding for materials and technical services. An acronym for Kansas Small Towns Environment Program, KAN STEP gives small Kansas communities an opportunity to do projects they couldn't otherwise afford. The funding is provided through the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.