Tuesday, North Whidbey Fire and Rescue commissioners approved retaining TCA Architectural Planning from Seattle to draw up plans for a new 6,000-square-foot fire facility.

The new building has been in the planning stages for the last four years, Chief Marv Koorn said.

“At this point, we will begin negotiating the cost of the facility with TCA,” Koorn said. “Hopefully, we will be able to break ground sometime in the spring.”

Koorn said the district has been putting money aside and should be able to get the building constructed without having to ask taxpayers for any additional funding.

“We have $2 million set aside and hopefully we will be able to construct a building even larger than the 6,000-square-foot one we have planned. Maybe even as large as 10,000 square feet,” he said.

The building will be constructed on existing fire district property on Heller Road.

Koorn said he and members of his staff have toured several recently-constructed fire stations and have liked what they’ve seen.

“It has given us a lot of hope on what we should be able to accomplish,” he said.

Koorn said the plan is to get the entire structure completed all at once rather than building in stages and stretching it out over six or eight years, as is sometimes done.

In other business, the district received a $2,900 check in disaster funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for last spring’s storm and another check for $7,330 from State Mobilization for equipment and personnel sent to Eastern Washington in July to fight fires.

“Our people and equipment were used to fight several of them over there and they were also moved around the state to fight other ones,” Koorn said.

Local firefighters George Hiteshew and Mari St. Andrew were recognized by the Eastern Washington Fire Association for their outstanding service.

Commissioners from the North Whidbey Fire and Rescue district agreed to and signed a cooperative purchase agreement with other fire districts on the island.

“What it amounts to is, say, if Central Whidbey gets a good buy on something, then we will be able to purchase off its contract,” Koorn said.

Calls for fire service are way up this year as compared to previous years. “We’re just plain busy,” Koorn said.

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. on Oct. 10.