Picayune, Miss. (WLOX) – The city of Picayune celebrated its new fire station with a ribbon-cutting on Monday.
The city leased the previous facility for many years and said it was never theirs because it was on school property.
The Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi Delbert Hosemann and other officials were aware that the Picayune firefighters were leasing and outgrowing the previous building that was built about 80 years ago and needed a new facility. The long process of thinking, planning and building took about six years total.
“This was tax-forfeited property and two years ago they came to me when I was secretary of state and they said ‘can you give this to the city, we want to build a fire station?’ And I did, and they did. And it turned out to be a perfect place. When I looked at the outline, it was forfeited to the state of Mississippi, so we were able to convey it for zero dollars to the city of Picayune,” said Hosemann.
Now, Picayune firefighters have a more modern facility on city property to serve the community.
“This is a fantastic experience, we’re real excited. We have a great fire department. They’ve been working really hard, so to build them a new fire station with all their help and all the efforts that have gone on throughout the state to make this happen, we’re very very excited,” said Mayor Pinero.
Fire Chief Keith Brown said the new facility has already made an impact helping them get a lower class fire rating, a class “A”.