THE Victorian Coalition has promised $6 million to build a new Wodonga CFA station if re-elected this month.
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Police and Emergency Services Minister Kim Wells, who visited the existing Stanley Street station this morning with Benambra MP Bill Tilley, said the cash would fund both the purchase of land and construction.
Mr Wells said if a Coalition government was re-elected, the money would be made available in next year's budget.
The former Wodonga South Primary School site in Jarrah Street - which closed several years ago after the school moved to White Box Rise - has been named as the preferred location for a new station.
The government and CFA have already had several discussions over the use of the site; Mr Tilley indicated in May last year that it could accommodate the city's new fire station, alongside the new $3.6 million mental health prevention and recovery care centre.
CFA District 24 operations manager Paul King welcomed the funding pledge and said the primary school site was ideal, in line with the projected growth of Wodonga.
The current fire station was labelled "a disaster waiting to happen" by firefighting union officials in June last year.
They said the 40-year-old building was in such a bad state a metal pole was holding up its front wall, trucks could only exit from the rear yard and there was asbestos in its walls.
CFA district 24 Operations Manager Paul King said at the time that a new fire station was part of "medium term" plans but that this was part of "natural progression" and had nothing to do with the state of the current building.
"If the building was considered unsafe, we'd be fixing it straight away."