No more hot cots. That’s the practice of person A (in this case, a firefighter) sharing a bed with person B while person A is working, and then reversing the procedure while person B is working. And given that there are 24 hours in a day, we suppose there could be a person C in this equation.
All that goes away with the opening of a new police, fire and emergency services substation.
The facility is part of a commitment the Quapaw Nation made to Pine Bluff before construction started on the Saracen Casino Resort. The ribbon-cutting on the new facility was last week, just days before the opening of the new casino itself.
The new emergency services facility is a grand addition to the public infrastructure of Pine Bluff, and perhaps it was that type of commitment from the Quapaw Nation that helped pave the way for its new casino here while other communities fuss and fight over the idea of having a casino in their midst.
For one, the timing for a new emergency facility couldn’t have been better. The firehouse the new one is replacing, located at 1201 Commerce Road, was old, having been built in 1973. It was in bad shape, in need of either being renovated or replaced.
Plus, the vintage firehouse used a floor plan for a house and really wasn’t intended to be a fire station. Along with the personnel having to share bed space, as mentioned above, the old facility was, like pretty much everything that gets old, just not conducive to the modern day.
The new facility also has quick access to Market Street and the Martha Mitchell Expressway, two arteries that will help emergency crews get to where they need to be quicker.
Considering that firefighters spend a lot of their lives at their firehouses, this new fire station will be much more conducive to giving those folks a better quality of life. The facility, which is located on the casino’s annex property, features two large truck bays and living quarters — meaning enough separate bedrooms to handle all three shifts. The building houses all of that, as well as a police substation and an emergency medical service facility that has a bay for an ambulance.
The partnership is certainly one the city can look to with pride.
Said Mayor Shirley Washington: “The city of Pine Bluff is pleased to have the state’s largest construction project in our backyard and know that it will spur on other economic development, not only in the immediate vicinity, but throughout our city. This is one of the many ways we’ve worked together to serve the residents of Pine Bluff, and I look forward to future opportunities to join forces and improve the quality of life for the people of Pine Bluff and southeast Arkansas.”
Spurring economic development. That certainly has a nice ring to it. We hope she is right. For now, though, the firefighters are happy, and that’s a good start.