New ground: Newton County Board of Commissioners District 3 Commissioner Nancy Schulz, left, Chairman Kathryn G. Morgan, Newton County Fire Service Deputy Chief of Administration Tim Smith, District 5 Commissioner Tim Fleming and Newton County Fire Chief Mike Satterfield cut a fire hose with giant scissors to officially open Newton County Fire station No. 7 Wednesday afternoon. The new station cost roughly $1 million to build but has cut response times nearly in half in the area south of Interstate 20. Since the station has been open, a little over a week, 35 calls have been answered which is 34.6 percent of the calls from the entire county.