LOWELL -- Plans for the city's second fire station will improve response times on the west side of town when it opens next year, officials said.
Construction on Fire Station No. 2 will begin in the fall at the corner of Bellview Street and Zion Church Road, Fire Chief Mike Morris said. The station will occupy the northwest corner of a 100-acre tract planned to become a city park, the Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park.
"Our average response time is higher than preferred on the west side, and it will be the primary response station for everything west of Dixieland," Morris said.
The department responded to 1,059 calls in 2016. Lowell Station No. 1 response time is 5 minutes and 7 seconds to the area east of Dixieland Street and about 8 minutes and 9 seconds for the area west of Dixieland. Once Station No. 2 is built, the target response time for its service area will be 5 minutes and 20 seconds, Morris said.
The Leonard and Kathleen Johnson Trust donated $1.1 million for the fire station project, Mayor Eldon Long said. The sum makes up the bulk of the project's cost, but city officials are still awaiting final estimates. The city earmarked an additional $625,000 from the fire impact fee reserves for the station.
"The donation from the Leonard and Kathleen Johnson Trust will enable us to accomplish this needed facility located near our booming west side," Long said. "It will house new personnel to serve the growing needs of our community."
The City Council on Tuesday approved contracts with Garver LLC and Jackson Brown Palculict Architects for construction of the station. City officials hope to have all bids closed by July 1 so work could get started as soon as late summer, but expect it will actually begin in fall and be fully operational by spring 2018.
Fire Station No. 2 is being designed for five firefighters to operate, but Morris said three full-time firefighters will initially be hired. The new location will eventually house the department's ladder and brush trucks.
Lowell's Fire Department began in 1973 as an all-volunteer operation, but it has evolved to a full-time department, said Raymond Burns, president and CEO of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce. Burns recently awarded the department with the chamber's Spirit Award, which goes to "organizations or individuals engaged in unusually significant, worthwhile activities that benefit the community and region."
The department employs 15 line personnel, two administrative officers and one administration assistant, all of whom are qualified EMTs, Morris said. They are staffed in three shifts of five personnel each and collectively provide services of fire suppression, fire investigation, fire prevention and community education programs, emergency extrication and paramedic level emergency medical response and transport.
"Every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year we go about our lives under the protection of the brave men and women who serve us in our police and fire departments," Burns said while presenting the award to Morris and Capt. Justin Watkins. "Most of the time we don't think about how safe and protected we are until something happens and then we see one of these heroes just minutes after we call for them."
The new fire station is only one of many improvements and upgrades the department made in the past year, Long said. In the past year, the city remodeled Fire Station No. 1, purchased a new ambulance, as well as a reserve ambulance from the Springdale Fire Department, and was awarded a $15,000 Arkansas Economic Development grant by Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers.
Lowell needed to buy ambulances following a Springdale decision to limit service to the city starting Jan. 1, 2016. Springdale previously served the Lowell area.
The department used the grant to bought upgraded fire protection equipment for all personnel, Morris said, including self-contained breathing apparatus units, pants and helmets. The upgraded units doubled the amount of time firefighters can stay active in those burning structures, from 30 minutes to now one hour, and also include a personal alert system, a safety feature that helps firefighters rescue one of their own if he's lost or injured in the emergency.
"My hat is off to the chief and the department for the great adjustment during this period of transition," Long said. "Each firefighter and medic rose to the challenge of these changes."
NW News on 03/27/2017