County looks at establishing fire department at Tanglewood

The Linn County Rural Fire Department is exploring the establishment of a fire station at Tanglewood Lakes. (Linn County Rural Fire Facebook)

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – Linn County Fire Chief Randy Hegwald has been in talks with representatives from Tanglewood Lakes about establishing a county fire station at the lake development.

During the Linn County Commission meeting on Monday, Dec. 30, Hegwald reported that Hegwald said he met with the Tanglewood board again during the past weekend. He said he was going to go back out to meet with a couple of the board members and they were going to do some measuring of the building the board is proposing to use to see what it is going to take to make that building work.

“I’m working through the utilities, what it is going to cost to heat and cool,” Hegwald said. “We don’t necessarily need the cooling but to heat that building next year to bring numbers back to you guys. 

“The Tanglewood board is going to go out and just kind of feel out the community to see what kind of interest there is because without firefighters that are willing to serve there that station wouldn’t make it. We need at least six firefighters to start it.”

Hegwald said he was going to set up a couple of recruitment meetings and question/answer sessions and see what the county could get as volunteers. He said that he thought there would be enough equipment on hand to use for the station.

He told the commissioners that the leak on the tender at Mound City that was being replaced had been fixed. He explained that the fire department had bunker gear for the firefighters there as well.