Progress on the expansion of the Rushmere Volunteer Fire Department might not be apparent from the street, but it’s happening, Isle of Wight County Public Works Director Tony Wilson told county supervisors on June 5.

The project remains on schedule to finish by March 4 of next year, he said.

The supervisors and firefighters held a groundbreaking ceremony in early January for the 1,116-square-foot addition that will house bunk rooms, men’s and women’s showers and a chief’s office on the south side of the existing station, plus two more vehicle bays totaling just over 2,800 square feet on the north side. 

The supervisors voted in August to award a construction contract to Norfolk-based Spacemakers Inc. Wilson said the contractor mobilized on site March 4 of this year and almost immediately discovered that the existing septic tank was installed incorrectly when the station was built in 1990 off Old Stage Highway.

“We’ve had some problems, but we’ve worked through them,” Wilson said.

A new septic system has since been installed and the footings for the additions were recently completed.

“We finally got the split-face block that was stuck for three weeks on the Canadian border,” Wilson said.

Pouring the concrete slab foundation for each addition is the next milestone.

“Once we get the slab floors, you will see very quickly, or the public will be able to see something then because it will be above ground,” Wilson said.

Block work, he said, should occur within the next month and a half.

One of the bays will house an Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue ambulance staffed with paid county emergency medical technicians.

Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Chief Garry Windley said in January that the ambulance was being built. Meanwhile, the station has since January 2024 been using an ambulance from the Isle of Wight County Volunteer Rescue Squad and will continue to do so until the new ambulance arrives.

A March 4 completion date would equate to roughly two months after the 50-bed Riverside Smithfield Hospital is set to open. The hospital, which broke ground in 2023 at Benns Church and Benns Grant boulevards, is expected to drastically reduce the time Isle of Wight ambulances spend outside the county limits transporting patients to Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News or Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk, both of which can result in a half-hour or longer drive from Smithfield depending on traffic.