New Fire Stations For Paradise Valley

The Town of Paradise Valley is building two new fire stations to decrease the need for other city’s fire services to respond to calls within PV’s town limits.

Currently Phoenix fire and medical teams respond to calls in Paradise Valley, and are currently operating temporary fire stations in the Town until the new stations are completed. The new stations, in addition to serving the community of Paradise Valley, will also respond to calls in the surrounding areas of North Phoenix.

“The stations are responsible for Paradise Valley’s population of about 14,000, as well as significant portions of surrounding Phoenix,” Wintersteen said. “We are not first [response] for Scottsdale even though we are close.”

The two stations are set to open this December and John Wintersteen, Director of Public Safety for PV, says the project is on time and under budget. The first of the new stations will be located in the PV Town Hall Complex (on Lincoln and Invergordon Roads), and the other will be on the Tatum Boulevard loop near the border with North Phoenix.

Wintersteen said the funds for the project all came from the Town. “We lease-purchased the buildings, equipment, and furniture,” said Wintersteen. “The Town made an agreement with a bank to cover whatever we buy and then pay the bank back. The buildings are on a ten-year lease-purchase for example, and the vehicles are on a seven-year.”

According to Town Council minutes, the overall costs will include Fire Station One’s land acquisition, fire station architectural services, construction, and construction management. The cost of construction for Fire Stations One and Two is $5,000,400. Additionally, $303,230 was budgeted for relocation costs, $30,860 for the temporary fire station, $190,000 for furniture, $40,000 for commodities/EMS lockers, $184,946 for training, and $60,000 to install a traffic alert signal at Fire Station Two.

Fire Services received 13% of the Town’s expenditures for this year’s budget. Between the ’07-’08 and ’08-’09 budgets the Town allocated $1,010,608 for start up costs related to the fire stations.

Wintersteen said the actual figures were $4,599,000 for construction and building costs, $789,000 for architect’s costs, and $175,000 for equipment and furnishings. He went on to say that although many cities have been affected by budget cuts, Paradise Valley has enough money to keep business going and that this project would not be affected.

“The Town expects to have some drop [in funds] but the Town has been frugal,” said Wintersteen. “We have enough to pay for this project and keep our operations running through the fiscal year.”

In addition to public safety, Wintersteen said there were other goals for the project. “We are building green buildings,” said Wintersteen. “We want to set an example for the other residents.” Also he said that parcels of land they decided to use for the project will benefit greatly from the “beautiful buildings and landscaping.”

Story Written By:
Ian Rogers – Student At ASU
Walter Cronkite School Of Journalism