By CYNTHIA BULLION
Times-Tribune News Staff
Published: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 8:38 PM CDT
HORN LAKE - “It’s been a long process,” Horn Lake Fire Chief David Linville said about work towards building a new fire station in the city. “Today’s probably the first real sign of getting started.”
Linville, who turned one of the first shovels of dirt for the new station during a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, said city officials began looking into fire service needs in the western portion of the city in 2002.
However, it was in late 2005 that they first discussed plans for a new station.
The move came as the Walls Fire Protection District that still has rights to serve an area inside Horn Lake’s city limits moved its station from along Hwy. 301 to the current City of Walls.
Alderman John E. Jones Jr., who represents the ward to be covered by Horn Lake’s new Station No. 3, said the Walls district’s move left some residents worried about how their fire protection would be affected.
He said the city helped to address those concerns approximately one and a half years ago when it located a fire and paramedic crew at the city’s public works facility along Hwy. 301 north of Goodman Road and called it Station No. 3.
Emergency crews previously were dispatched from Station No. 1 at Goodman and Tulane roads to respond to calls in the western portion of the city.
“Everybody I’ve talked to is wild about it,” Jones said about residents’ response to news of the new fire station’s pending construction on a five-acre site along Hwy. 301 between Nail and Goodman roads.
To be managed by local firm Murphy & Sons, construction for the new fire station could begin in two months and be completed by year’s end.
Linville said the fire department has no plans for increasing staff to man the nearly 16,000-square-foot station, for which construction costs have been budgeted to not exceed $2.39 million.
The station will include quarters for 11 staff, training and common areas, and offices for fire administration
