Editor's Note: This is the third in a five-part series on the proposed Springdale bond issue. This and previous stories can be found at nwaonline.com/vote/local.
Julie Rogerson and Ann Sugg appreciate Springdale's Fire Station No. 7 on Har-Ber Avenue.
The quick response times by Fire Department personnel saved the Rogerson home from fire and 92-year-old Sugg from lapsing on the floor all night after a fall.
"I called them," Rogerson said of the department. "I grabbed my dog and my purse, and they were here."
Fire Station No. 7 -- as well as Station Nos. 8 and 9 and a training center -- were built with $16.4 million from a 2018 bond issue approved by residents.
The city will bring another bond issue to voters May 9, which includes $7.8 million to build Station No. 10 and additional training structures.
Fire Chief Blake Holte said one station will suffice for now.
"We can't short-change the city's other infrastructure needs," he said. "We depend on the roads to get us to scenes. They go a long way to making us more efficient."
Holte said the new station would be built somewhere along Wagon Wheel Road, between North 40th Street and South Dixieland Road, which will be extended south to Wagon Wheel Road as a part of the 2018 bond program.
Station No. 10 would serve the north-central reaches of town, where the Fire Department currently has a gap in service, Holte said.
Opening the station would include more than construction costs. Station Nos. 7, 8 and 9 were built for about $4 million. The station also would require vehicles. Holte said the department is considering what would be best for its fleet. A new engine would cost about $750,000, he said. A ladder truck: about $1.2 million.
Holte said he expects the new station could be in service in about a year and a half if the bond issue is approved.
The entire city benefits when fire personnel are close, said Mayor Doug Sprouse.
The Fire Department in 2017 earned the best fire insurance rating possible from the Insurance Services Office in Jersey City, N.J. Home insurance rates are decreased for homeowners in a city with the top rating, Sprouse noted.
The new station would help the department keep the city's top rating, Sprouse said.
TRAINING
The department also hopes to build training structures near Fire Station No. 4.
The city's busiest station has outgrown its current building on Elm Springs Road. Its replacement will be built about a block south, just off of White Road. The city will use money from its general fund to build the new Station No. 4, and all equipment will be transferred, Holte said.
The department owns about 5 acres at the site, which will provide room for training structures, Holte said.
The site will not have the capability for live-fire training as it does at the Mickey Jackson Fire Training Center in the city's industrial park, he said.
"But it will still have a place where we can pull ladder and throw hoses," he said.
The location of Station No. 4 will allow a centralized training center for stations on the west side of town. For training at the Mickey Jackson Center, these stations would have to cross town, leaving areas uncovered.
COVERAGE
The city also considered building Station No. 10 on land donated for that purpose in the southeastern part of town.
Holte said the department doesn't have coverage issues in the south like it does in the north.
The city moved Station No. 3 north on North Thompson Street, just south of County Line Road, with money from a 2013 bond issue.
Station No. 7 and Station No. 9 were built from 2018 bond money in the northwestern quadrant of the city -- where city officials expect more residential development. But a map still shows a gap in coverage in the north-central part of the city.
The U.S. 612 bypass and the development of the J.B. Hunt Transport corporate offices are expected to bring additional calls for the Fire Department, Sprouse added. Holte said Lowell's Fire Department has limited staff, and the Springdale or Rogers departments help the smaller city in many situations.
The city does expect to build an 11th station as Springdale continues to grow, Sprouse said.
"And for fire protection, we're not only concerned about how long it takes for one truck to reach a fire scene," Holte said. "But we are concerned about how long it takes multiple trucks to get to a scene."
Fire doubles in size every 30 seconds, Holte said. In three minutes, smoke and heat can ruin everything in the house.
SERVICE
Rogerson was sitting at home a year ago March 18. The home's gas fireplace was on as she and Kirk Rogerson listened to a Razorback baseball game on the radio, she explained.
She said they heard a loud pop, the radio quit and she heard what sounded like a bonfire crackling in their wall.
Rogerson said firefighters told her the house was just five or 10 minutes away from a full roof fire.
Firefighters also covered the family's new couch before they started tearing down the wall. Rogerson said they helped minimize the damage.
"We know 100% they saved our home," Rogerson said.