Work begins on interior of new Coast Guard Station Tybee

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - It’s been just over a year since Coast Guard Station Tybee broke ground on its new state-of-the-art, multi-purpose facility.

It’s located on Cockspur Island near Fort Pulaski. The outside is done, and crews are hard at work on the interior.

The whole exterior of the 25,000 square foot building is intact, and the windows are in. What’s left now is a lot of intricate, time-consuming work in the building. This includes things like getting the command center ready and finishing the elevator shafts and engineering space.

Engineering Petty Officer Trey McLendon says once it’s all done it’ll alleviate a lot of stress on the crew. For example, they don’t have the proper engineering shop to be able to work on their vessels right now, but he says they will in the new facility.

McLendon says there will also be a recreation center and basketball courts, which he says is key in boosting morale. Something he says has been hard to keep up ever since construction started and they’ve been living in trailers.

“It’s one thing to be stuck in, you know, temporary birthing and stuff like that and still running the job and trying not to let it affect the mission, but the morale does suffer after a while. This is their home away from home well over 50 percent of the time so it’ll be nice to have somewhere where they’re comfortable and can call their own. They’ll be the first ones in there, so we’ll get to make it our own,” McLendon said.

In June, WTOC was told the facility would be done by this spring, but McLendon says they did have a few setbacks and are now on track to be done by August.

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