The Lakeland Fire Department needs $7.2 million to build a new fire station on U.S. Highway 98 north of I-4.
Lakeland Fire Chief Doug Riley told the commission that LFD’s seven fire stations handled 29,053 calls in 2021, a 10% increase from the previous year with response times increasing in the rapidly growing northeast and southwest reaches of the city.
“The area north of I-4 is served by Lakeland Fire Department Station 3, which is south of the interstate at Florida Avenue and Bella Vista Street. Response times are bad and getting worse”, Riley said, “with response times of 15 minutes or more in some areas north of I-4.”
LFD Station 3 is the busiest of the city’s seven firehouses, handling 7,868 calls last year, a 26.6% increase, he said, with 3,307 of the calls coming from north of I-4.
Riley presented two options — relocating station 3 to a “more central location (that) decreases response time to north Lakeland” or spending at least $1.5 million for a 1.5- to a 2-acre parcel for the eighth station on U.S. 98N.
The station 8 proposal also seeks $2.2 million for a two-bay station, $160,000 in furnishings, $880,000 for a new fire engine and equipment, and $1.2 million in salaries for 12 additional firefighters/EMTs.
The two-year funding request earmarks $5.9 million for next year and $1.3 million for 2024.
Despite Southwest Lakeland’s rapid growth, LFD is recommending the city continue its mutual aid agreement with Polk County Fire Rescue to help cover the area.
“We don’t see or anticipate enough growth” now for an LFD station in Southwest Lakeland, he said, suggesting commissioners negotiate “a more long-term contract” with the county because “just like us, they’re getting busier all the time.”
“The day may come,” Riley said when an LFD station is needed in Southwest Lakeland “the way that area is growing” but the city is “very comfortable with our partnership with Polk County Fire Rescue,” Riley said.
Commissioner Bill Read said the city can “save a lot of money” by locating new fire stations on city-owned lands, such as parks.
Commissioners Mike Musick and Phillip Walker said they support adding the eighth station rather than relocating station 3.
“We need to add another station to the north,” Musick said. “We really got to get into this conversation. It’s late. And it’s not moving a station — it is adding a station. We’ve got to do some talking.”
Walker said, “A station is needed in north Lakeland but to just forego one, to replace one, I don’t think it is the route we take,” suggesting the city present voters with “an initiative” that clearly states, “This is what we need to have done and we need you to buy into it.”