Volente celebrates newest fire station

VOLENTE, Texas – The community of Volente packed into their newest fire station Saturday afternoon, as county officials celebrated the opening with a ceremonial hose uncoupling.

The completion marks the end of 15 months of construction, as operations have officially begun on the new 9,500 SF facility. 

State of the art facility open in Volente

What they’re saying:

“This is a community asset. It’s not the fire department’s, it’s the communities. It’s all about our ability to respond to their needs,” says Volente Fire Chief, Rob Zimmerman, who’s served with ESD 14 since 2009. As the area around Lake Travis continues to see expanded growth, he says firefighters having the best facility at their disposal has become a top priority. 

“Everything in this building design was revolved around health and safety for our personnel. Personnel are our number one asset.”

The new station comes equipped with a climatized vehicle bay, new sleeping pods, and equipment rooms, as well as a state-of-the-art kitchen. It also comes with a day room for entertainment, new shower spaces, as well as a laundry room. Zimmerman told FOX 7 that the department’s nine firefighters made the transition to the new station back in December. 

In order to move to the new facility, Volente firefighters didn’t have to go very far. The department’s old station is located just feet away from the new facility. It’s where the town’s fire department has been based for 65 years, but wasn’t a space solely dedicated to first responders. 

“It was a fire department and a community center. The shared space was sometimes a conflict. As the fire service grows, so do our needs grow, and we needed to move into a dedicated facility,” says Chief Zimmerman.

The need for their own space is what started conversations for the new facility back in 2008 and eventually led to a groundbreaking in October 2024. After a year of construction, final landscaping was accomplished in December 2025, with the project on time as well as on budget. 

“There were many, many opportunities for this to go sideways and this is one of the smoothest construction projects I’ve been associated with,” says Zimmerman.

Big picture view:

With its completion, Travis County officials believe the new facility won’t just benefit the people of Volente, but everyone else who calls Travis County Home. Emergency Services Districts across the county work under an agreement known as automatic aid, meaning, regardless of jurisdiction, the closest available unit will be assigned when an emergency call is made. 

“When the Volente Fire Department is functioning at a high level, that benefits all of us, because they might be the folks that answer the call when I need it,” says Ann Howard, the Precinct 3 Commissioner for Travis County. 

Through Texas law, ESD NO. 14 levies a property tax of ten cents per $100 property value. The money collected is used to fund first responders as well as support projects like the new fire facility, something which Howard says can make all the difference. 

“It’ll keep us safer because it helps the firefighters have what they need when they need it.”

ESD 14 is responsible for fire protection and first aid medical response in 16 square miles of western Travis County.