Irwin council gives fire department extension to use former school property for new $1M station

The Irwin Volunteer Fire Department will get more time to try to build a new fire hall and ambulance base at the site of the former Sixth Street School in the borough.

Irwin council Wednesday directed Zachary Kansler, borough solicitor, to prepare the deed for the former school property at 504-506 Fifth St., to be transferred to the fire department.

The new deed will replace the deed the borough had granted the fire department in October 2021, but reverted back to the borough this month because the fire department had not begun to build a new fire hall on the site.

Council President Rick Burdelski said that council granted the fire department the deed to the 2.3-acre site for another three years because the department indicated it would present plans for the new building next year.

Justin Mochar, chief of the Irwin fire department, could not be reached for comment.

The fire department three years ago had pursued the idea of building a modern fire hall at the former school because its operations had outgrown the current fire hall and ambulance base on Western Avenue.

Borough officials in early 2021 also discussed creating a municipal complex on the property, which would have meant moving government offices and the police department from its building at 424 Main St. That would have made both the government offices and police department, which are located on the second floors, handicapped-accessible.

But council opted against the project.

Three years ago, Mochar estimated the proposed building would cost between $800,000 and $1 million. He told borough officials at the time the fire department hoped to break ground at the site in spring 2022. The proposed 7,200-square-foot building was to be 1½ stories tall and hold seven bays for vehicles.

Although the site is in the middle of a neighborhood, firefighters determined they could drive their trucks up or down Sixth Street, or down Chestnut Street, when an emergency occurs, Mochar said.

To help pay for the project, the fire department would have sold its existing fire hall and ambulance base on Western Avenue. The fire department had paid off a $169, 500 mortgage on its property in August 2012, according to documents filed with the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds.