LOREAUVILLE, La. (KLFY) — Blueprints are finalized for a new fire station in Loreauville. The village mayor said replacing the original structure is necessary to help the community grow, and it will equip firemen to better protect the area.

This original fire station is about 60 years old, and as Loreauville Mayor Brad Clifton told News 10, “It’s definitely time to replace it.”

The Loreauville Volunteer Fire Department is for all intents and purposes out of room. Most of its original walls are covered from the outside with sheet metal, but inside you can see where their two-bay-door fire station was extended to fit one fire engine. Another fire truck is stored offsite because they don’t have the space to use it. However, the village’s most ambitious construction project in quite some time will address those problems and more.

Mayor Brad Clifton showed News 10 blueprints which will soon be presented state for approval. The plans include 4 bay doors instead of two, a training room three times the size it is currently, office space for the fire chief, and a functional storage room instead of their current leak condemned corner. The front three main bay doors will face Main Street and a final bay door will face Boutte Road.

“We’re looking at the end of the day, probably $1.3M in total construction cost, overall project costs, and 90% of that money will be coming from capital outlay,” Clifton explained. “We’ll be putting up the rest of it.”

Clifton says when the price results in a modernized Loreauville, he gladly embraces it.

“When you want growth in your area, you have to got to be willing and able to put up a building like this of this magnitude. You’re not just putting the investment in for the people that are here now. You’re putting an investment in for the people that will be here in the future,” he concluded.

The blueprints will be submitted to the state in mid-February, so they can go before bidders and hopefully start construction by this summer.