York County won a national award – and saved millions of taxpayer dollars – by renovating an existing building to serve as its newest fire station.
Fire Station number 7 was not originally a fire station. It was converted from a youth home owned by the city of Williamsburg, according to York County officials.
The total cost of renovating the home and adding a prefabricated structure to the building, which was inaugurated two years ago, cost $4.1 million, York Finance Director Theresa S. Owens told us. York also signed a 40-year lease with the city for $200,000, she said.
The last fire station York County built new -- Number 1 -- was completed late in 2019 at a cost of $7.6 million. Those construction costs would be significantly higher today, Owens said.
The National Association of Counties awarded York a 2025 Achievement Award at its national conference in Philadelphia last week for innovation for the fire station project, as well as three other initiatives.
“The interior of the building …