City officials say a $7 million plan to have emergency services share some facilities is about saving lives rather than money.
Council unanimously approved the funding Monday night but the plan to build two new fire stations and have shared facilities with EMS at four other stations will be presented some time in 2013. That will increase the amount of satellite EMS stations from two to five in the city. Superior North EMS Chief Norm Gale said while that will marginally increase operating costs, the whole point is to improve 911 response times.
“It’s about driving down response times for paramedics which are now too high,” Gale said.
The plan identifies James Street, Vickers Street and North Central fire stations slated for shared facilities, including the renovation of Brown Street Station as.
The new fire hall, along with rebuilding Neebing Fire Station will be $1.5 million each with an additional $1 million for things like project management and design. Those stations would share a similar design which would cut down on costs city manager Tim Commisso said.
“The beauty of doing two fire stations is we can look at one design,” he said.
Coun. Andrew Foulds wanted to know if the plan will look into improving EMS response times in his Current River ward. Gale said he agrees that response times are too long in some areas in the north end of the city and that there is an analysis for a new Current River location being done right now.
“The problem is Boulevard Lake bisects the Current River ward,” Gale said.
With the exception of the new EMS headquarters being built on Junot Street, Gale said none of the existing EMS sites were built with response times or any evidence-based research in mind. The analysis being done right now is trying to correct that.
Coun. Joe Virdiramo wanted to know why Neebing and a new Westfort fire station couldn’t be combined with an EMS facility instead of two new builds and renovating Brown Street. Gale said it’s because EMS and fire respond to different types of calls and the proposed Westfort location on Broadway Avenue has a low call volume for EMS.
