The Augusta County Board of Supervisors voted 5-2 to approve the concept of a hub fire station at the existing Churchville location but several supervisors said they were not prepared to commit to construction without cost estimates, design plans and clarified ownership terms.

A motion to approve the hub-station concept at the current Churchville site was seconded and brought to a vote after discussion. Supporters said the Churchville location best serves the western portion of the county based on call volumes and staffing patterns. One supervisor noted the location aligns with heat‑map and call‑volume data presented previously by the fire chief.

Opponents and some undecided supervisors repeatedly emphasized they had not seen design plans or cost estimates and said they could not vote to spend taxpayer money without those details. One supervisor said, in substance, that they "certainly can't vote for something that I don't even know what I'm voting for," noting absence of cost and scope information. Another supervisor said ownership of the building and site was a central outstanding question.

County staff and the fire company reported that the Churchill volunteer fire company voted unanimously to support a plan under which "the county would own the building and maintain the building" while the volunteer company would retain ownership of the property where the building sits. In the meeting record: "the dirt that's under it" was specifically used to describe the volunteers' continued property ownership.

Vote and next steps: the motion to approve the hub concept at Churchville passed on a 5-2 vote. Supervisors who opposed the motion said they were not opposed to the concept in principle but would not support moving forward to design and construction until the county and volunteers produce cost estimates, plans and a clear ownership and maintenance agreement. Supporters said approving the concept allows staff to proceed with planning and design work needed to develop firm cost estimates.

Why it matters: a hub station is a multi-million‑dollar capital concept that affects emergency-response coverage across the county; supervisors disagreed over whether the board should authorize concept approval without cost and feasibility details and how to resolve property-ownership arrangements between volunteers and the county.