The fire department is looking to make some improvements, assuming voters are on board.
The city council voted during its August regular meeting to pursue a $20 million bond, to be secured by a 1 percent sales tax, to support building a new police station and court facility, raze and rebuild Fire Station 3 on Glasgow Road and construct a fire training facility.
This sales tax increase cannot be approved by city government alone and must go to the voters for approval. City officials have previously expressed interest in getting the issue on the March 2020 primary ballot.
Fire chief Steve Sims said that if these measures are approved by voters, the revised Station 3 will allow the department to better serve the highlands with more staff, which in turn will allow the department to have more vehicles on-site, including an ambulance -- something the Highlands station currently lacks.
Currently, he said, Station 3, which opened in 1986, can only house two firefighters and a fire truck is the only unit on-hand. If there's a medical call, those firefighters -- who are trained in emergency medical work -- go to treat the patient while an ambulance is dispatched from Station 4 on Forest Hills Boulevard. If transportation is needed, that ambulance takes the patients to the hospital.
This decision was made in part because keeping the ambulance at Station 4 keeps it where the higher call volume exists and it ensures a fire truck remains in the Highlands, which fulfills the department's responsibility to provide fire protection in the area.
But since Station 4 opened in 2016, he said, the Highlands has grown. With more residents in the area, there's an increasing demand for fire and medical service, he said.
"As we're growing out there... we feel the need," he said.
In an optimal scenario, he said, the department would have a fully staffed station on Glasgow that can provide fire protection and ambulance service.
"Without a bigger fire station where we can have more people, it's not going to happen," he said.
Provided the city can build this fire station, Sims said he wouldn't expect an increase in staff right away -- an ambulance crew would simply be moved from Station 4 to the new Station 3.
The city council voted in March to purchase a piece of land on Glasgow Road, near the current location, for $57,000 with the intention of putting a new Fire Station 3 on it. The current station is expected to be razed and a sand and salt storage facility will be built in its place to shorten trips for street department vehicles salting the roads in winter weather.
In addition, the city also has a license agreement with the Bella Vista POA to use a 10-acre parcel near the intersection of Chelsea Road and Tudor Drive for a fire training facility.
Sims explained that this would allow the department to train its people more safely and with less disruption to the community.
The facility would include a building for simulated fires and other exercises, like search and rescue training, as well as training rooms and an area for driving training.
Drivers need regular training and must pass qualification exams, he said, and the department typically uses parking lots in the area -- but because those parking lots aren't designed with heavy vehicle use in mind, this often results in damaged pavement the city is liable for.
It also gets training exercises away from the general public, which drastically reduces the risk of accidents between training firefighters and pedestrians, he added.
"This gives us a better place for our guys to train," Sims said.
It will also feature a typically-unmanned fire station, he said, and between that and the fire training facility itself, it will net the city more points toward a better Insurance Safety Office, or ISO rating for fire protection, which many insurance companies use to adjust homeowners insurance rates.
Mayor Peter Christie said that, assuming the bond election passes in March, funds could be available as early as May 2020. Construction start dates can vary between bidding processes and design time, he said, and he doesn't expect to see any construction before 2021.
If the fire portion of the bond election fails, the city will continue operating the way it is today, he said.
General News on 10/16/2019