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The meeting is planned for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, in Maple Grove Community Building, 1420 Columbia Ave.
The township's volunteer fire company, with its "aging and undersized" facilities at two separate sites, has been looking for a place to consolidate its operations for several years.
Fire company officials will give a presentation "bringing everyone up to date on their efforts (for) … a fire station that will meet the current and future needs of the community," Township Manager Bill Laudien said.
Nothing has been decided, township officials emphasize. But they believe the site being discussed — Lancaster Township Community Park — is centrally located and that a consolidated fire company is "eventually going to become necessary," Laudien said in a letter to township residents.
"We are not at the end of this process, nor are we in the middle of this process. Securing use of the land is a first step."
The township fire company was formed when the former Bausman and Wheatland fire companies merged in the early 1990s. The Bausman station is at 125 Fairview Ave., off Millersville Pike, while the Wheatland station is at 1250 Maple Ave.
But with both former stations still in use, it's obvious that "dispatching personnel and equipment from two locations is impractical," Laudien said.
The township two years ago took the step of fully funding the fire company's operating expenses, "freeing the firefighters from having to hold fundraisers and permitting them to focus on training and fighting fires," Laudien said.
Two weeks ago, the School District of Lancaster board agreed to begin negotiations with the township on a possible lease agreement that would allow the station project to proceed.
Lancaster Township wants to build a center with a fire station and ambulance and police facilities in the northwest corner of the park. The site abuts Atkins Avenue and is behind the Planet Fitness exercise club and other commercial properties that face Millersville Pike.
SDL owns the land and leases it to the township for recreational use. The terms of the 99-year lease would have to be changed for an emergency services center to be built there.
Laudien added, "We see NO immediate need for an ambulance substation nor police substation, but we recognize that our long-term growth" over the next few decades might require extra emergency services.
Concerning police coverage, Lancaster Township recently approved a pact with Manheim Township police, who will begin patrolling Lancaster Township on Jan. 1. That agreement ends nearly four decades of Lancaster city police coverage of the township.
Staff writer Brian Wallace contributed to this report.
