Bay County to build fire station, community center in Fountain with $9.18 million grant

FOUNTAIN − A new public amenity and possibly lower insurance rates are around the corner for residents.

Bay County commissioners on Tuesday approved a more than $9.181 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery agreement to build both a community center and fire station in Fountain.

"(On) the community service side of it, that gives something for the Fountain community to have a place, to have a park to go to and be able to do (activities) as a community," Tommy Hamm, chairman of the commission, said. "Also having that ... fire station (will) get fire protection up there in that area for that part of the county."

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Hamm said the new fire station will hopefully improve the area's ISO rating, which is used to determine homeowner insurance rates. The rates are based on how prepared a region is to tackle fires. Hamm said they are very important for counties.

"With things like (a new station), that helps everybody, really, in Bay County get lower costs on their homeowners insurance," he said. "It puts equipment in that area that can radius out to be able to cover fires, car crashes or whatever the emergency may be."

According to the meeting's agenda, Bay County will pay about $882,655 in matching fees for the grant. These will be funded with fire and park impact fees.

The design and construction of the new Fountain Community Center and fire station was approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

Hamm noted securing outside funding sources like the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery agreement are crucial to the county's future because they allow it to accelerate large, expensive developments.

He also said he believes additional community centers are "invaluable" to Bay County as it continues to recover from Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that struck the Panhandle in October 2018 and decimated many local areas.

"It enhances our quality of life," Hamm said. "This is just one more step in getting past Hurricane Michael and getting back to some kind of normalcy, to where people can go and do recreational activities like we were able to do prior to the storm.

"You can't put a number on being able to get back (to) life in a 'normal' aspect."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County to build new fire station and community center in Fountain