STRUTHERS — It took nearly 80 years, but history has significantly replayed itself in the city — to the delight of many.

“This is one of the most exciting days in the history of Struthers,” Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller said. “This is history repeating itself.”

Cercone Miller made her remarks during a special ceremony and ribbon-cutting gathering Saturday afternoon to usher in the grand opening of a new fire station at 238 Elm St., which will replace the one at 96 Elm St. that opened in grand fashion and was dedicated in 1943 at a cost of $25,000.

The new 7,340-square-foot station was finished this spring, after about one year of construction, and has features that include two extended apparatus bays, drive-thru bays, significant greenspace and a large storage mezzanine. It’s also equipped with a new Sutphen pumper truck, the cost of which was around $563,000, Michael S. Patrick, city council president, noted. Patrick brought to the event a series of newspaper articles, photographs and memorabilia pertaining to the station that was built during World War II and compared the similarities between both openings eight decades apart.

Columbus-based Williams Architects built the facility, estimated at $2.3 million. About $300,000 of the cost came from federal American Rescue Plan dollars, fire Chief Mike Agnone said.

Cercone Miller and others thanked Daniel H. Becker, a longtime Struthers businessman, who donated the acreage to the city for the fire station. The building also is dedicated to the memory of Becker’s late father, Hazen L. Becker, who died in 1983 after having served in the U.S. Army during World War I and for years as a Struthers volunteer firefighter.

Dan Becker began working full-time in the funeral service business with his father in 1961 after the younger Becker had returned from the U.S. Army, where he served with the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper sergeant.

Another key component in allowing the new station to be built was funds generated from a 2-mill levy that voters overwhelmingly approved in the Nov. 5, 2019, general election, former Mayor Terry Stocker said. Ground for the new station was broken a month later, he recalled.

About 10 years ago, discussions began regarding seeking funding for a new fire station. MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown was hired to conduct a study on the original station and concluded that it was not structurally sound, said Stocker, who also was part of a committee to raise the money.

A plan to come up with the necessary funding also included educating the public about the old fire station’s condition, Stocker added. In addition, Dan Becker had approached him about donating the parcel to the city, on which a church had sat, in memory of his father, Stocker continued.

The new building also will be an anchor for, and provide added stability to, the surrounding neighborhoods, he said.

“I’m just so proud of our residents and the community, because this is your day,” Stocker added.

Cercone Miller said that firefighters and equipment should be moved into the new facility later this summer.