Jackson-Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department is planning to build a third fire station to better serve the Mutton Creek subdivision and those residents along U.S. 31 and U.S. 50 east of Seymour.

Fire Chief Kurt Fenneberg said the department’s two existing stations — at Dudleytown and on Yankee Road south of Freeman Field — are too far away from those east side residential areas. That distance is causing increased insurance rates for homeowners, he said.

Plans call for the new station to be built at 11033 E. County Road 500N, south of U.S. 50 and east of U.S. 31. The location also will help put the department closer to Reddington to provide quicker mutual aid.

Even with good response times from its two existing stations, Fenneberg said the fire department is not meeting the fire protection rating distance requirement for the east side of its coverage area.

The department serves all of Jackson Township that is outside Seymour city limits and all of Washington Township. The area is about nine miles east to west and about 10 miles north to south.

“Because our stations are more than four miles away from the east side, it’s making our rating null and void,” Fenneberg said.

In the past, the department had a station at Kriete’s Corner on U.S. 31 south of U.S. 50, but Fenneberg said the property was sold in the 1970s because at that time, it wasn’t a good location.

“It didn’t provide good access, so we sold it and have kept the money back,” he said.

The department also sold its Pine Grove station near Hangman Crossing west of city limits in 2012 and saved that money, too, Fenneberg said.

“We almost have enough money saved to buy the ground for the new station,” he said.

The 1.37-acre property on East County Road 500N is owned by Jack Maxie Sr.

Read the full story in Wednesday’s Tribune and online at tribtown.com.