Local officials, Mountain Home Fire Department personnel, members of the Sharp family and members of the community celebrated the grand opening of Mountain Home’s second fire station on July 2.

Named for the family who donated three acres of land for the station, the Sharp Family Fire Station 2 is a 10,800-square-foot facility funded entirely by the city’s public safety tax, a 3/8-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2018 and designated for police and fire department use. The total cost of the project was $4.5 million and was completed without the city incurring debt.

“This facility replaces one we’ve been in for probably 35 or 40 years,” said Mayor Hillrey Adams. “It was an old house we had converted into a station.”

The Sharp Family Fire Station includes three apparatus bays and is expected to house an engine, a ladder truck, and potentially a brush truck or tanker. It is staffed 24 hours a day with four firefighters per shift. The city recently hired three additional firefighters to support operations at the new location. “It’s right on the main highway, very visible,” Adams said. “We’ve added a new firefighter shift and brought on three new firefighters. That gives us four at this station and four downtown.”

The new facility includes a kitchen, living quarters and an outdoor patio area. The station is in a growing area of Mountain Home and is intended to improve emergency response coverage on that side of the city, Adams said. “These people that serve our community live there for 24 hours a day. They deserve a place that’s safe, comfortable and built for the work they do.”

Sonny Sharp shared the story of his grandparents’ arrival from Czechoslovakia in 1912 with the Mountain Home Observer. They purchased 160 acres sight unseen from a German-language newspaper in Chicago and built a life in Mountain Home despite speaking no English. Sonny’s parents, Red and Margaret, became very involved with their community—Red opened and operated the only land-clearing business in the mid-1900s, while Margaret became active in community organizations such as 4-H and the PTA. “It is for Red Sharp and Margaret Sharp that we honor them with the name of this building today,” Sonny said.