Late Sunday afternoon, just after Sherman Township firefighters had put out a grass fire west of Linwood, they still had work to do.

Firefighters and township board members brought shovels to the site of the fire department’s future building and dug.

It was the groundbreaking ceremony for the fire department’s new building.

The new station, at 170th and Kreider, is expected to be completed by mid-summer, said Fire Chief Dan Tallman.

Tallman said the existing station in downtown Linwood will remain in use.

“We’ll have a minimum of two trucks in Linwood,” Tallman said. “So this new station will probably have the pumper, tanker and grass truck, trailer and possibly the water rescue equipment.”

Tallman said he hoped the second location would spur growth in the number of firefighters.

“We have 24 on our roster, that’s up from 19 last year,” Tallman said. “And I think we’re going to have a better response from centralized area where we can get to our customers a little better and shorten our drive time. There are already a lot of people around here (the new station) that already are volunteers. Hopefully by us building right here, some people will see it and … we’ll get more volunteers.”

Among those at the groundbreaking ceremony were township board members Jimmy Elder, Stuart Sweeney and Roberta Fritz.

Elder has long been a firefighter. In fact, Elder was the township fire department’s first fire chief when it started in 1954.

The township bought land for the new fire station five or six years ago, Tallman said. The site is about four miles east of Linwood.

Tallman said the new fire station, fabricated from concrete and steel, probably would cost about $150,000.

Aside from storing trucks, the new building will serve as the department’s training facility. And, Tallman said, it possibly may be used as a voting site.