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Hodges VFD has announced its plans to expand with a substation across the county line in Marion.

With an eye toward acquiring some of the Marion County fire fee, plus a goal of a lowered ISO rating, the Hodges Volunteer Fire Department has announced its intentions to build a secondary fire station, just across the line in Marion County and within the Hodges fire district.

Chief Lesley Cantrell announced the department’s plans at Monday’s council meeting. He said the department had planned, in the future, to build a substation anyway, but now the time is ripe.

“We’ve got to have a department in Marion County to apply for our share of the money,” Cantrell said.

In Franklin County, the recently-approved fire fee is in place in some fire districts, but not in others. In Marion County, Cantrell said, the fire fee goes to the county fire association and is divided equally among all county VFDs. Having a station across the county line will allow Hodges to apply for including in the association and claim their portion of those funds.

The new station will be in the old Pig-Eye community. Cantrell said his wife’s family owns a piece of land that the department can lease to build a small substation that will house one pumper truck and a grass truck. He said they hope to have it operational by summer.

“If we’re going to stay here, we might as well grow and keep going,” Cantrell said. The additional station should also aid the department’s ISO rate. “I just want our community to have what it needs, what it deserves.”