Dedication of $4.5 million East Lincoln Fire station Saturday fills emergency service hole on Highway 20

By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle

EDDYVILLE – Decades of dreaming and years of effort will be celebrated Saturday as East Lincoln County Fire & Rescue hosts a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of its new $4.5 million fire station in Eddyville.

The event, which is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the ribbon cutting at noon, comes exactly one week shy of a year since the groundbreaking for the 10,000-square foot, four-bay station with sleeping quarters. Tours of the new station along with a meet-and-greet with firefighters will be part of Saturday’s event at the station, 124 Nashville Road off Crystal Creek Loop Road.

The all-volunteer station will serve not only as a fire and rescue station but also as an emergency preparedness hub and bulwark for wildfire response in the area, said East Lincoln Fire & Rescue District board member Jeff Doyle.

“For wildland fire protection our particular district is the largest per-square-mile district in Lincoln County – 55 square miles – and 90-plus percent of that timber,” Doyle said. “Any response time from east or west is not very timely, so this being here will cut response by probably 25 minutes. And we will be able to protect travelers along the highway and all the visitors who come to the coast.”

Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, who led the effort that resulted in the 2021 Legislature allocating $4 million in Oregon Lottery funds to make the project possible, said during the May 2, 2025 groundbreaking that the station will save lives.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Gomberg who is scheduled to attend the ribbon cutting. “Back in 2013 we worked really hard to turn Highway 20 from a slow, twisty, dangerous highway into a straight, fast dangerous highway. And we need this station here to reduce the response times to the accidents that continue to happen on that roadway.”

The total cost of the project was a little higher than expected, coming in at just under $4.5 million, Doyle said. But donations of furnishings and grants from timber companies, the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians and others are helping to soften the impact.

The “green building” is solar equipped, has a 25,000-gallon water cistern, four bedrooms for volunteers, a full kitchen and lounge, a training room that doubles as a community room, a reception area, rooms for emergency operations and communications and an electric vehicle charging station.

Working operations at the building will start the first or second week of May and a hard opening is scheduled July 4.

• Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]