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WALLACE — Officials and public servants came together Monday morning for a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of Wallace’s new fire station, an undertaking nearly 10 years in the making.
“This is a long time coming,” said Mayor Jason Wells in his opening remarks, explaining that the lot for the new fire station was purchased back in 2006.
”I don’t want to say that was the easy part, but that was the cheap part, I guess I would say,” he said, eliciting laughter from those gathered for the ceremony. “You know, building a building takes a lot of money.”
The push for a new fire station was driven by the combined efforts of the local fire department and the town’s leadership. Wells credited former Fire Chief Chuck Farrior and Chief of Police Jimmy Crayton, who were both instrumental in this effort.
“I will say without the efforts of Chief Farrior and Chief Crayton, this building would not be possible. Because they did all the selling that day,” he said, praising their dedication and advocacy for the project.
According to Wells, a pivotal meeting was held with local and state officials two or three years ago to push the project forward. Senator Brent Jackson, Representative Jimmy Dixon, Councilor Jason Davis, along with Wells, Farrior and Crayton, came together to discuss the fire station’s future. The meeting resulted in Jackson and Dixon taking the cause to the state, ultimately securing the funding needed to bring the fire station to life.
Though the town initially requested $20 million in funding for the project, $5 million was awarded to begin the construction of the new fire station. “We had this vision of a new fire, and [police department], and town hall and trying to renovate all these buildings at once,” said Wells. “We still got a little work to do with the funding, but the state came back and they gave us $5 million dollars to ge this project going.”
In his remarks, Fire Chief John Johnson thanked all those instrumental in making the long-awaited development a reality. “Here we are in 2025, we’re about to start the ground breaking for a station,” said Johnson. “That just shows just how committed to the public safety this community is. Last but not least, we really got to look at the men and women that served this community for almost 100 years. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”
