If you’re passing through Kill Devil Hills all the activity getting underway at the former Mako Mike’s Beach Grille on the bypass, as the building that started out as a Western Steer steakhouse in the 1980s is set to be demolished beginning Monday.
The site in the 1600 block of North Croatan Highway will eventually be home of new Kill Devil Hills Fire and Dare County Emergency Medical Services stations.
“We’re looking forward to the new stations being constructed with improvements that will allow our first responders to continue providing critical lifesaving services to our residents and visitors,” the Town of Kill Devil Hills stated in an email and social media posts.
In December 2021, Dare County finalized the purchase of property for the new 31,000-square-foot station that will be constructed as part of a $47 million phase one of the county renovating or replacing its eight EMS stations.
Dare County’s contribution is approximately $28 million for the three projects, with the remainder funded by the municipalities and other partners.
Kill Devil Hills will enter a 20-year lease with the county for the fire department space, and contribute its share of the design and construction costs capped at $24.6 million. KDH commissioners finalized that agreement at their March 13 meeting.
The county says EMS Station One is responsible for providing service to one of the busiest and most populated areas of the Outer Banks — and due to this high demand and need for a rapid response to emergency calls, the replacement of this particular facility was listed as a top priority
Once completed, the county says the new station “will be the largest EMS facility in the county and enable Dare County EMS to further improve its response times and provide residents and visitors with an even higher level of response to the influx of emergency calls that are received by the department on a daily basis.”
The other stations that are slated to be renovated or replaced in phase one are EMS Station Four in Southern Shores on East Dogwood Trail, where demolition is scheduled to begin in the coming days, and the Dare MedFlight hangar on Roanoke Island (Station 7). More information can be found at DareNC.gov/Projects.
Plans are for the old Kill Devil Hills Fire Station (Station 14) to be converted into a Public Safety Center, occupied primarily by the town’s police department, which currently has its headquarters at Town Hall.
