The new year hopefully will bring a new fire hall for the South Kalispell Fire Department.

Davar Gardner of Gardner Auction Service recently donated a 5-acre parcel near Patrick Creek for the South Kalispell firefighters to build a new fire hall.

The property, located at 3320 Airport Road, will be more centrally located than the current fire hall on Willow Glen Drive. Adding a fire hall in the Orchard Ridge area will shorten the response time in emergency situations and decrease insurance premiums for South Kalispell residents.

“It’ll be a nice piece and give them something and it’ll help our insurance for everybody in the whole vicinity,” said Gardner. “Something good’s got to happen this year, don’t it?”

Gardner, who formerly ran Gardner’s RV, now Bish’s RV, with his son Todd, owned the property for the past 30 years. Most recently, he used it as a horse pasture after his original plans to build a house there never materialized.

For the past two years, he’s been in talks with South Kalispell firefighters about the need for a new fire hall location. Recent population growth in the Orchard Ridge area, which is more than 5 miles from the existing fire hall, has made that need all the more pressing. Finally, this month, Gardner finalized the paperwork to deed the land to the fire department.

“I figured it was a good entity to give to,” Gardner said. “The people of the Flathead have been awful good to us.”

The new fire hall should make life safer and more affordable for those people in South Kalispell.

Larry Smith with the South Kalispell Fire Department explained homeowners pay insurance premiums based on their proximity to a fire hall, and South Kalispell residents currently pay the highest possible premiums. Their insurance is currently rated at a 10, and the location of the new fire hall will hopefully cut that number in half. South Kalispell insurance likely will be rated at a 5 once the new fire hall goes into operation, which is on par with the rating in the rest of the city.

Smith said now that the donation is complete, the fire department expects to start building the new fire hall next spring or summer. But funding for the building itself remains an issue.

The fire department is currently fundraising for a new facility, which is planned to include a public meeting space in addition to three fire engine bays.

In May 2021, the fire department will ask for voter approval to build on the site and its first-ever levy increase in order to apply for a low-interest loan for the project.

Donations for the new fire hall can be sent to the South Kalispell Fire Department, P.O Box 621, Kalispell, 59903.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at (406)-758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.