Rehoboth fire company breaks ground on new station

Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Company's new $4 million Station 2 on Airport Road is expected to open in the spring.

For the fire company, the new station has been a long time in coming.

At an Oct. 16 groundbreaking, former fire chief Leonard Tylecki said, “Very fulfilling for me. This has been like a 10-year project getting this project off the ground.”

“The members are very excited about it,” spokesman Warren Jones said. “The majority of our firefighters respond from this station.”

The 16,000-square foot station is more than double the size of the old one and will have more space for crews, offices for the fire company and emergency medical service administration and six bays for vehicles, twice as many as the old station. The new station is being built by EDiS Co., which has offices on Route 9 outside Lewes.

Intended to serve as a base for Rehoboth firefighters who live outside the resort, Station 2 was built in 1978, when the Dodd family, who owned the land, donated an old hangar from Rehoboth Airport.

Because more and more firefighters live out of town, the department has outgrown the facility. Chuck Snyder, a former fire chief, said it was always the company’s intention to build a new facility on land in front of the old firehouse. In 2009, the company began a capital campaign that has raised $1.9 million; the company received additional funding from County Bank.

Operations will continue as usual at the company’s Rehoboth Avenue Station 1 and Angola-based Station 3.

The groundbreaking attracted firefighters and state and local legislators, including Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach; Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes; and Rehoboth Commissioner Stan Mills.

“Even though the City of Rehoboth Beach has an in-town fire department, as so many emergency responses require multi-station responses, the expansion of the Rehoboth Beach Station No. 2 is a welcome sight in our area,” Mills said.