Tillis' funding request for Canton fire station moves forward
Canton firefighters continue to clean out supplies and equipment from their flood-ravaged station off Park Street on Aug. 20, 2021 — three days after floodwaters infiltrated the building.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
The effects of deadly flooding in 2021 are still being felt in the town of Canton, but thanks to a federal funding request from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), the town is poised to take another huge step toward recovery.
According to a document from the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Committee outlining congressionally directed spending, Tillis has requested just under $5.8 million to help the Town of Canton replace its fire station, which was damaged during the floods.
“This goes back to the days following the flood, sitting on the riverbank at BearWaters Brewing with Sen. Tillis,” said Zeb Smathers, Canton’s mayor. “One of the major concerns we raised was with the fire department. We have been working behind the scenes on this since then. We made a promise to our town and our firefighters to get our facilities out of the floodways. We cannot respond to future flooding — which will happen — while we’re here trying to take care of our own.”
The appropriations bill provides funding for a slew of federal programs, mainly within the purview of the Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Tillis’ request, which was approved by the appropriations committee along with more than a thousand others totaling $98.7 billion, still has to be formally approved by the full Senate before it proceeds to the House, likely by the end of the year.
Contrary to incorrect reporting on basic federal legislative procedure by WLOS-TV yesterday, the bill has not “passed the US Senate and heads to the House next.”
But making it out of the THUD appropriations committee means there’s very little chance the funding won’t be appropriated. The funding would come from HUD’s Community Development Fund.
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“I am proud to request this funding on behalf of the Town of Canton to build a new fire department and ensure residents are kept safe,” Tillis told The Smoky Mountain News Aug. 1. “I applaud the town leaders for their diligent work to request the funding and I was pleased to advocate for its inclusion in the appropriations package that passed out of committee. I will continue to push to secure this funding in the final appropriations bill that will be passed out of Congress.”
Back in February, town officials reported that their estimate for the cost of the new fire station would top $5.3 million, without real estate. A site for the new fire station has not been located but is believed to be closely tied to the fate of the 185-acre parcel formerly home to Pactiv Evergreen’s shuttered paper mill, which closed last June. A private entity signed a letter of intent to purchase the property, but the sale has not yet been executed and there’s not much more information on what, if anything, might happen.
Chief Kevin Wheeler said at the time that the current site is “perfect” as far as its central location, and that moving even a half-mile one way or the other could affect response times.
The town also anticipates continuing population growth over the coming decades, meaning the existing 5,688 square-foot facility would soon become obsolete without expansion. An estimate by Creech & Associates, the town-contracted design and engineering firm responsible for the project, put the 20-year projected need at 13,310 square feet, requiring a parcel at least 2.8 acres in size to site the building and its apparatus support, along with administrative, fitness and residential components.
Tillis, formerly the speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, visited Canton early and often in the wake of the flood, and has continued to work on behalf of the town to address the impact of the mill’s closure.
Tillis’ request didn’t make it out of committee last cycle, but ongoing conversations between Smathers, town staff and members of the Senate committee helped to change that outcome this time around.
“Every once in a while, Washington works,” Smathers said. “This is one of those times. Sen. Tillis and his team have made promises and kept them.”
Other requests made by Tillis in the bill include $4.18 million for Guilford County’s Peacehaven Farm, which will help provide affordable housing for persons with disabilities; $5.79 million for an EMS/fire training facility at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford; $3.2 million for a facility expansion at Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind; $1.38 million for equipment upgrades and the City of Hickory’s fire station; $5 million for infrastructure improvements at the Johnston Family YMCA in Charlotte; $1.5 million for expansion at the Midtown YMCA in Wilmington; $4 million for wastewater treatment in the City of Mebane; $247,000 for the Servant House Project in Guilford County; $2 million for expansion at the Stowe Family YMCA in Gaston County and $5.2 million to Lenoir County for water and sewer infrastructure.
