The Valle Ambulance District in southern Jefferson County has purchased property on which to build an all-new House 3.
The 2.64-acre property is adjacent to its current House 3 site at 5379 Hwy. B near the Raintree subdivision. The new property cost $205,000 and will be paid for with district building fund reserves, Valle Ambulance District Chief Jesse Barton said.
“This is not new money; it’s what we have set aside that we have been saving since 2003,” he said.
District officials agreed to buy the property in September after nearly two years of researching and decision-making. Early in 2024, the district consulted with engineering and architectural firms about whether a remodel of House 3 was practical. Purchased in 2002, the station includes a manufactured home on a basement and a small, detached garage on a 2-acre plot.
“The property is small, it’s hilly, and we don’t have a lot of options,” Barton said. “Another main issue is safety concerns. Pulling out onto Hwy. B from the current site, there’s a very limited sight distance. As busy as (Hwy.) B has become, we wanted to address that.”
A property search was announced in April 2024.
“We looked and looked and looked, and nothing is cheap,” said Becky Lowry, district board president. “House 3 takes care of Raintree, of the Grandview school. We knew we needed to stay in that area, and we were fortunate to find this property.”
The new property at 5397 Hwy. B connects with the current one, but only in a small area.
“There’s another property that sits between them,” Lowry said. “So they’re only connected at the back.”
She said the district has yet to decide whether to keep the current House 3 and repurpose it for district use or sell it.
A100-year-old building that the district has boarded up and winterized temporarily sits on the site, and Barton said it likely will be demolished in the coming months as site prep goes forward.
The district has hired Bacon Commercial Design to prepare plans for a station tailored to the district’s needs to be built on the new property.
“We’re estimating a 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot building, including living quarters and two ambulance bays,” Barton said.
Lowry said district officials want to get the best building the budget allows while being mindful of their responsibility to district stakeholders.
“Whatever we build will be utilitarian – a pair of blue jeans and not a Sunday suit,” she said. “We spare no expense on ambulances and equipment for taking care of our residents, but we won’t waste money on a Taj Mahal building. We will work to get the biggest bang for our buck.”
The Valle Ambulance District serves approximately 250 square miles in southwestern Jefferson County, including communities in the De Soto and Hillsboro areas.
The district staffs three full-time ambulances around the clock and responds to an average of 5,100 calls each year, district officials reported.