'I'm excited to get the ball rolling' | Goshen Fire Station 18 rebuild begins 2 years after damaging tornado

GOSHEN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Two years after Goshen Township Fire Station 18 was wrecked by an EF2 tornado, officials on Friday broke ground on a new station headquarters.

"It's huge. The (firefighters) have been operating out of cramped quarters in our temporary station," Goshen Fire Chief Edward Myers said. "It's even cramped in our other satellite station because it wasn't made to house as many firemen as it is right now."

The tornado, which hit Goshen in July 2022 with top wind speeds of 130 miles per hour, left significant damage in its wake. Three people were injured in connection to the storm and more than 150 buildings were either destroyed or damaged.

"It's huge for the citizens of Goshen Township and Clermont County," Myers said. "It's important to have quick response times, so this is going to make a lot of that a lot more feasible."

Clermont County Commissioners David Painter and Bonnie Batchler, Rep. Jean Schmidt, Board of Trustees Chair Dan Hodges, a representative from the office of the Ohio governor and more were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday.

"It was tough to get the legislature to understand the need for this building," said Schmidt, a Republican who represents Goshen as part of Ohio House District 62. "I had to remind (the legislature) that the reason for the need was the tornado and how important it is for this community to have a working, operating fire department."

Myers said Schmidt played an integral role in securing approximately $2.5 million in state funding from the latest budget to make this rebuild possible.

"No local tax levy dollars are being used to construct this fire station," he said. "It's a combination of insurance money, state disaster (relief) funding and money from the capital budget."

The multi-million-dollar rebuild is slated to finish by the end of 2025.

Goshen Township Fire & EMS

Crews leveled the former, dilapidated structure in the fall of 2023 to make way for the new building.

"The new station is going to be more energy efficient, and we're putting things in place because of the presumptive cancer laws for firefighters in the state of Ohio," Myers said. "So we're putting things in place to make it a safer work environment."

For Goshen firefighter Justin Andler, the rebuild means his team may soon be able to move out of the temporary, make-shift station they've used in place of a fire headquarters.

"It impacts it a lot because this was our biggest facility. This is where we housed (most) of our vehicles," said Andler. "Having to split those resources between a shed, pretty much, that we were sharing with the service department, and then our smaller station down the road, it really boxed people in."