Powder Mountain, Weber Fire District break ground on mountaintop fire station

EDEN, Weber County — With continued development expected in and around the Powder Mountain ski resort, including, possibly, a hotel, a new fire station is taking shape to serve the mountaintop community.

Powder Mountain and Weber Fire District representatives gathered Thursday to break ground on the new two-bay facility, which will house a ladder truck, ambulance and brush truck. The plans are tied in part to plans for a potential multi-story hotel in the high-altitude area and the steep grade, 14 percent, of the principle roadway that ties into the ski resort, state Route 158, also known as Powder Mountain Road.

"They want to build hotels up here, and with this steep grade, we can't get ladder trucks up in a reasonable amount of time and so we have to have a ladder truck station up here at the resort to be able to service those hotels if something was to happen," said Britt Clark, the Weber Fire District chief.

Apart from Powder Mountain development, Brooke Hontz, chief development officer for the resort, noted other subdivisions taking shape in the area, which will also be served by the new fire station.

The 7,000-square-foot facility has a price tag of $6 million, to be covered by Powder Mountain, and it should be done and operable by late next year. It's taking shape at 6965 N. Powder Mountain Road, near Timberline Lodge, and will also serve the portion of Powder Mountain that spills into adjacent Cache County.

"There's a lot of plans to put a lot of stuff up here, and they recognize that they need service up here. The residents buying homes up here want service closer," Clark said.

Similarly, Hontz noted the many activities that occur in and around Powder Mountain, the many buildings popping up in the area and its location on the wildland-urban interface. "It just made a lot of sense for us to get to work with them and to find this location within the resort site," she said.

The hotel planning, she said, is still in the preliminary stages, but it's not the only potential growth in the works under the leadership of Reed Hastings, majority owner of the resort. The Powder Mountain master plans over the long haul, already approved by county officials, call for a mix of development on both the Cache County and Weber County sides of the resort — condominiums, single-family homes, new lifts, trails and more.

"There's a long way to go, and it's phased, and it will take a lot of time to get to your full buildout. But there is definitely activity happening every year related to each kind of proposed site plan and development phase," Hontz said.

Weber Fire District serves several Weber County locales, including Huntsville and Ogden Valley, the new city that abuts Powder Mountain. It has existing fire stations in the Eden and Huntsville areas, and the new Powder Mountain facility means firefighters from those facilities would have less need to respond to emergencies at the ski resort.

Ownership of the new fire station, when complete, will be turned over the Weber Fire District, which will maintain the structure, according to Clark. He said two to three firefighters will be stationed at the facility. Funding to pay them will come from Powder Mountain and, as the area grows, generating more property tax revenue, Weber Fire District.

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