SPRINGDALE -- City leaders agree three more fire stations should be built.
The City Council Committee, which is made up of the entire City Council, decided Monday that three new fire stations should be presented to voters as part of a 2018 bond issue. However, they want to further review the issue and determine if the stations should be traditionally built or if the stations should be more cost-efficient metal buildings.
Bond issue
City leaders hope to pay for three new fire stations with a 2018 bond issue.
Wyman Morgan, city administrative and financial services director, estimates residents will be asked to vote on the bond issue in February or March. The three fire stations will be among many projects in the bond issue, which likely will include a new animal shelter, a municipal campus, a northwest park and road improvements, Morgan recently said.
Mayor Doug Sprouse anticipates the bond money will pay for nearly $160 million in projects.
The bonds would be paid for with a continuation of a 1 cent sales tax the city levied for the first time in 2004 to pay for $105 million in road improvements, Morgan said.
"My feeling is let's build three knowing where they're going. Let's build them in today's dollars," Mayor Doug Sprouse said to council members. "We'll know the cost after you decide what to build."
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. City leaders hope the park will also be paid for with bond money.
The city currently has six fire stations.
The new stations are needed to quicken response times, fire officials said. Some response times are as long as 20 minutes, Capt. Dustin McDonald with the Fire Department said last week.
Lengthy response times are especially a problem in the city's northwest section. Station No. 4 on Elm Springs Road handles the area, but response ranges from 15 to 18 minutes, said Fire Chief Mike Irwin.
"I told the mayor I don't think we'll have a more ample opportunity to build three stations than we do now," Irwin said during the meeting. "We have got to do something about that northwest corner. We cannot continue to have an 18-minute response time out there."
Alderman Jim Reed agreed, supporting three stations and stressing the need for a station in the northwest corner.
"The response times out there are terrible," Reed said.
The department needs to achieve a four-minute travel time from the station to an emergency scene, which is the National Fire Protection Association standard, he said. Department responses include fire and emergency medical services, Irwin said.
City leaders will next determine if the fire stations will be traditionally built or made by Morton Buildings, a metal building manufacturer in Morton, Ill.
The metal buildings would have brick veneer and concrete siding to make them look like the traditional stations, Irwin said.
A Morton Building fire station costs $250 a square foot. A traditionally built fire station costs about $450 a square foot. Each of the new stations will be just under 10,000 square feet, Irwin said.
The total cost for the three fire stations built by Morton would be about $13.5 million, which includes fire trucks, furnishings and equipment, Irwin said.
City leaders are planning an Oct. 23 trip to the Pleasant Hills Fire District in Pleasant Hills, Mo., south of Kansas City, to visit the fire station, which was built by Morton Buildings.
NW News on 10/17/2017