Bella Vista's newest fire station will be completed this week, said Fire Chief Steve Sims. The city has set a tentative date of July 8 for firefighters to move in. Construction began Aug. 13, 2015, but preliminary planning began more than a decade ago.
As the dust settles on the 9,200-square-foot Highlands Gate Station, the fourth in Bella Vista, the specifics of its innovations and improvements for the community are becoming concrete.
The most visible feature of the station is a bioswale out front that will collect rain water.
"It actually drains and filters all of the water out, and the water then flows into a valley below," Sims said. "I was optimistic about the bioswale and how it would do, but it really works well. It got over three inches of rain last weekend, so it was filled to the overflow. It all drained out."
Bioswales remove pollution and silt from runoff. They are designed in a way that maximizes the time water spends in them, which allows more pollutants to be filtered out. The water is then drained naturally.
"It utilizes natural vegetation, so it will be there forever. You never have to do anything with them. It will grow trees in it, as well," Sims said.
Public Safety Committee Chairman Jack Fellenzer said that the addition will save money in the long run.
"A pond (that retains water) is a curse," Fellenzer said. "The maintenance on those things is extremely high. The business owners (I've known who have built retention ponds) finally just say 'to heck with it' and let them plug out, so they become non-functioning pretty quickly." He noted that the bioswale is good.
The station features six separate bedrooms and three showers in separate bathrooms. There will also be two safe rooms with reinforced concrete that can withstand an EF-4 tornado.
In the engine bay, yellow hoses hanging from the ceilings serve a unique purpose.
"The hoses hook up to the exhaust system on our trucks," Sims said. "When we (start) the trucks, the exhaust is taken out instead of hanging around in the engine bay and the living quarters. It's extracted out with a vacuum. The engine compression sets a motor off that sucks the exhaust out away from us."
The most important feature of the station is its location. The Highlands area has seen a population boom in recent years, and, according to Sims, it will continue to grow. Until now, firefighters at Fire Station No. 1, in Town Center, responded to fires in the Highlands, despite the fact that fire trucks can take 10 minutes or more to travel there from their base next to City Hall.
"It's going to really benefit the people in the Highlands," Sims said. "Don't get me wrong, it's going to help everyone in the city. But in the Highlands, (people have been scared). The sleepless nights, the gut aches, the worry about whether an ambulance will get there in time: that's all going to go away."
Sims said that, on more than one occasion, an emergency call has come in from the Highlands while the new station sits empty. Firetrucks instead have to rush over from the Station No. 1.
"My gut ached every time that call went out," he said. "This is going to make a world of difference between point A and point B. This station should have been built 11 years ago."
One reason the Highlands area is so crucial is that the Bella Vista Bypass is expected to further increase the amount of people moving there. The bypass is on the far western edge of the Highlands, while the new station is on the far east side of the same area.
"Once that road is completed, more people are going to be building out there," Sims said. "It's going to be out of the way of everything and closer to Rogers and Bentonville."
General News on 06/15/2016