By Scott Smith
Plans to build a $2.5 million fire station on Center Road will have to be scaled back, city officials said Friday.
City officials had hoped to receive $1 million in stimulus funding for the station, which will be located on city-owned property just east of U.S. 31.
Last week, Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight learned the stimulus request had been denied, meaning the new station will now be expected to cost around $1.5 million, city controller Jim Brannon said.
Axis Architecture, Indianapolis, is already working on plans for the station, which was originally also slated to house a police substation.
Brannon said the designers are now rethinking those plans, in light of the smaller budget.
The Kokomo Common Council has already appropriated $320,000 to purchase the property — which sits just east of the Village Pantry — and to complete the design work. Goodnight said he doesn’t expect to spend the entire appropriation.
Numerous studies conducted since 1991 have indicated a new fire station would eventually be needed for the southside. And for at least the past decade, fire chiefs have asked for funding at annual council budget hearings.
The National Fire Protection Association standard for career firefighters is 60 seconds to turn out, 4 minutes for the fire engine company to arrive and 8 minutes for all first alarm units to arrive.
For the southeast quadrant of Kokomo, the first company to be dispatched is the firefighters at U.S. 31 and Boulevard, and the response time to the Walnut Creek Apartments would be 4 minutes, 54 seconds. That’s too long, local firefighters have long said.
When the station is constructed, Engine Co. 2 would be relocated from the main station to the Center Road facility, Goodnight said.
“There are areas that don’t get response times within 4 minutes,” he said.
The station would be located in an area the city plans to annex. The city’s annexation plan calls for a $1.5 million station to be constructed using Economic Development Income Tax funds.
In September, Councilman Mike Karickhoff, R-At Large, said the new station has been discussed for two decades.
“This is the right thing to do for Kokomo,” he said, “whether or not we have annexation. We have adequate staffing.”
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
