After serving 28 years with the Teton Village Fire Department, volunteer Pete Soldolski is looking forward to retirement! We are grateful for Pete’s service and his contributions to the Fire Department. Thank you, Pete!
While losing a hard-working asset is always tough for a volunteer team, Fire Chief Jon Bishop is looking forward to the future and remains focused on securing land in Teton Village for a future fire station. With continuing construction and development of dozens of new homes, sustained commercial development, including the new Hoback Club, and the risks associated with our wildland urban interface here in Teton Village, demand for emergency response has significantly increased. In the calendar year 2020 TVFD saw a 50% volume increases in calls and 2021 is tracking to be another record year.
The current fire house lacks adequate training space and does not have enough space for all the emergency vehicles to be housed on site. It sits on leased land, mountainside, on a steep road, which is not an ideal location to maneuver large vehicles to enable quick response times. Our firefighters need a permanent station that includes enough land to create on-site training opportunities, a communications area, and the ability to expand as Teton Village continues to grow. TVSFD has worked diligently with the stakeholder’s group and will continue to work with all of the entities involved. The two locations that have been looked at in the greatest detail are the maintenance lot and the Village Park parcel–however, for TVSFD we are just looking for any location that addresses our ever growing needs. The priorities are 1) Up to 1 acre of deeded land on flat ground; 2) Zoning that will allow housing for firefighters; 3) A facility that is large enough to meet NFPA code requirements and to conduct the required training.
To support our initiative in finding a permanent home for the Teton Village Fire Station and to find out more information about the Teton Village Special Fire District please email us at frontdesk@tetonvillagwy.org