BENTONVILLE -- Next year's budget includes money for the city's next fire station in the southwest corner as officials anticipate that area will continue to grow.
The $350,000 budgeted for next year would be for the design and preconstruction work, according to city documents. The City Council has not approved the budget yet.
2018 budget
Bentonville City Council may choose to approve its budget for next year at its meeting Tuesday.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Community Development Building at 305 S.W. A St.
Source: Staff report
The city already owns the 2.3 acres just north of The Parc Apartments on Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard. The station will be located on Southwest Prime Avenue.
City officials said it's too early to know if the 2019 budget will include money for building the station.
"It's not so much the cost of construction, it's the absorption of the head count that's the issue," said Mayor Bob McCaslin.
Building a station is a one-time cost, whereas the employees who staff it are an ongoing expense, he explained.
Fire Chief Brent Boydston said a seventh station is needed for quick response times, to keep distances to a fire station short and to meet the increase in calls.
"This area is the fastest growing area of the city," Boydston wrote an email. "We do know that there are subdivisions in the planning stages for this area, and the new annexed area in to Bentonville."
The council approved the annexation of four areas in the southwest corner at its Nov. 14 meeting. One is about 98.5 acres east of Southwest Barron Road between Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard and Piercy Road. Another was 36 acres between Southwest Featherston Road and Been Road.
Specific numbers weren't readily available last week, but city planning officials said earlier this year at least two-thirds of the single-family building permits and the majority of multifamily building permits for the last two to three years have been in Ward 3, the city's southwest quadrant.
"The only place the city really can grow is to the southwest," McCaslin said, adding that that's where large, undeveloped pieces of land are available.
There were 1,243 calls for service to Station No. 6 this year through Nov. 21. That's an increase from last year's 1,140 total calls to that station, according to numbers Boydston provided.
Station No. 6 is at 3312 S.W. I St. near the intersection with Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard. It opened in March 2015 as the newest station. Nine firefighters were also added to the department's payroll that year.
Station No. 7 will be about four miles southwest of Station No. 6.
The Insurance Service Office evaluates the distribution of fire stations in each community as part of its Public Protection Classification program, which is commonly known as a city's ISO rating. Ratings under the program help determine home insurance rates. The lower the number, the better the rating.
The program's criteria says an area should have a station within 1.5 road miles of the protected properties and a ladder-service truck within 2.5 road miles, according to Fire Chiefs Online, a website provided by the program.
"Those benchmark criteria produce an expected response time of 3.2 minutes for an engine company and 4.9 minutes for a ladder-service company," the website reads.
Money for the design of the next station comes one year after the city added 10 positions in the Fire Department to help keep up service with the growing city population.
The positions increased the total on each shift by three, from 21 to 24, said Deputy Chief Kevin Boydston last fall. They allowed the department to vary staffing at different locations based on variables such as call volumes, the time of day and day of the week, he said.
"If we have some additional chess pieces, we can look at where they can be deployed to maximize their usefulness," he said.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports Bentonville's population was 44,499 in 2015, up from 35,313 in 2010.
Bentonville's not the only city eyeing expansion of fire services. Springdale is considering asking for $16.4 million to build three new fire stations as part of a $200 million bond issue proposal that may go to voters in February.
The fire stations are planned to be in front of Hellstern Middle School at 7771 Har-Ber Ave., at the Kawneer Drive and Huntsville Avenue intersection and near the future Shaw Family Park at Downum Road and Ball Road in the northwest section of the city.
Springdale currently has six fire stations. Its estimated population was 78,557 in 2015, according to the Census Bureau.
New stations are needed to quicken response times, which can be up to 20 minutes, fire officials said this fall. They are especially an issue in the city's northwest area.
"I told the mayor I don't think we'll have a more ample opportunity to build three stations than we do now," Springdale Fire Chief Mike Irwin said during an October meeting with Springdale City Council members.
Lowell's second fire station, at Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park, is slated to open next year. Lowell also added 10 positions to its Fire Department this year, according to its website.
Lowell's population was 8,922 in 2015.
NW News on 11/27/2017