AHOSKIE – The old building has served them well for decades, but the time has come to enjoy a new, and more modern environment.

Effective with their regularly scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. next Tuesday (June 11), members of the Ahoskie Town Council will move into their new chambers at the recently opened Ahoskie Fire Department (Station 1) located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

The $1.8 million, 12,800 square foot facility turned out to be more than just the new home to the town’s fire department.

“We talked about doing something else with this building, using it as a multi-purpose facility,” said Ahoskie Town Manager Tony Hammond. “At the outset of the design planning we knew that the fire department needed a training room to conduct the various educational aspects of their jobs. We talked about also using that space as an EOC (Emergency Operations Center) in case of a storm since it would be equipped with auxiliary power capable of keeping lines of communication open.

“Things just evolved from there,” Hammond continued. “We started with designing the room to also function as the meeting chambers for the Town Council. They can take advantage of the technology built into this particular space, to include computers, all Internet accessible, as well as a large, drop-down screen to use for visual presentations. It really didn’t cost that much more to turn this space into a multi-purpose room.”

Additionally, Hammond said the town’s service boards (Planning, Historic, Beautification, etc.) can also use the room for their meetings.

The town is also moving its Inspections/Code Enforcement department to the new fire station. An office for that department was designed into the building plans.

As for the existing Council chambers at Town Hall, Hammond said that space will meet some demands for growth.

“We’re running out of space here at the Town Hall,” he said. “We’ll use this space (Council chambers) as offices. We need the room.”