At the Summit Fire & EMS Board meeting in January, district officials disclosed aspirations to break ground on the new Silverthorne fire station in the fall of 2023. But a timeline drawn up by SEH Architecture, which considers the length of time involved with the permitting process with the town and other factors, indicates that our hopes may have been a bit ambitious. Although the desire remains to start construction this year, crews will be pushing to beat the onset of winter, and groundbreaking ultimately may need to be pushed back until spring of 2024.

While town officials have vowed to work as quickly as possible, part of its typical 90-day review period – when the proposal is being considered by outside agencies such as the Colorado Department of Transportation, for example – is not under town control.  

“We’re going to work with them to expedite anything in here that we possibly can,” Chief Travis Davis told the Board. “When we made the statement last month about shooting to break ground in the fall, we felt it allowed ample time to get through the design/engineering and permitting phase as such to at least break ground and have a foundation poured before the end of the year. Now knowing what we’re truly up against as it pertains to the required waiting periods and the amount of time to complete the actual work leading up to the construction phase, meeting our goal of breaking ground in the fall is being replaced with the reality of actually getting to work in the Spring of 2024."