Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program has released details on its latest round of grants and it includes a $1,975,000 grant for rebuilding the Harmonville Fire Company’s substation on Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting (Plymouth Township).

The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program is a grant program of the commonwealth administered by the Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational, and historical improvement projects.

“The timing for the RACP grant could not be better,” said Harmonville Chief John Hoffman. “The population in this community is growing, and we need to be accessible to all of our residents so we can respond quickly when needed. The alternations planned for the substation will support this goal.”

The grant will be used to rebuild its antiquated substation located at 904 Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting on its current footprint. Working alongside KCBA Architects, it is Harmonville Fire Company’s goal to make structural changes that will bring more firefighters and apparatus to the substation, thus supporting faster response times and higher firefighter staffing levels both during the day and night.  

This will be accomplished by creating a space for four single bunk rooms, along with showers and lockers. To support daytime 911 calls, workspaces will be built to incentivize “work from home” volunteer firefighters to work remotely from fire company office space, so they can readily depart on a fire truck if called.

The renovation will allow for the housing of bigger apparatus, gathering space for volunteer meetings, and the usage of a diesel caption exhaust system.  The substation’s last renovation occurred in the late 1970s with all labor provided lovingly by fire company volunteers.

Image: Rending of the proposed Harmonville Fire Company substation