(Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photo)

What: Pilot Butte fire station

Where: 425 NE 15th St., Bend

Owner: Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District No. 2

General contractor: Griffin Construction, Prineville

Architect: Soderstrom Architects, Portland

Details: A new station for the Bend Fire Department is under construction on NE 15th Street, just south of U.S. Highway 20 and the Bend Police Department headquarters.

Station No. 306, also known as the Pilot Butte station, is scheduled to be occupied in September, said Gary Marshall, executive director of the Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District No. 2.

The $3.9 million building will be on land leased from the city of Bend.

The 10,000-square-foot building will have four apparatus bays for fire trucks or ambulances. It’s larger than one the district built in Tumalo because it also includes a 1,500-square-foot training room, which will be leased to the Bend Police Department, Marshall said.

The training room, which police will use for vehicle training, will be built so it can be converted to two more apparatus bays in the future, Marshall said.

The two-story station’s exterior will mimic the one built in the 1920s on NW Minnesota Avenue, Marshall said. “There’s a lot of brick and kind of that old-fashioned feel to it,” he said.

The fire district borrowed about $7.9 million for the two new stations and will cover the cost through its budget without a tax increase, Marshall said.

The Pilot Butte station is a new station for the east side of Bend. The nearest station is No. 304, which is northeast of Hamby and Neff roads. The station will be staffed 24 hours a day with a captain and three firefighter-paramedics, Marshall said. Some will be reassigned from other stations, and the district has proposed hiring six additional firefighters, he said.