By Daniel Winningham
Planning for a new fire station in Perryville, to be located on Perryville Boulevard (Highway 51), continues.
The new structure, on the west/north side of the Highway 51 bypass, will be in front of the Citizens Electric facility.
“They started the process a couple years back with the Board of Adjustments but we have not yet seen a building permit application so I don’t know when they will start,” said Perryville city administrator Brent Buerck. “They plan to locate along Perryville Boulevard next to the Soccer Park.”
The address for the new fire station will be 650 Perryville Boulevard.
“We have known for many years our town was developing in a westwardly direction and an eventual firehouse would be needed for coverage,” Buerck said. “Several years ago, we purchased this property with the intentions of building a fire house.
In addition to purchasing the property, the city has chosen Dille-Pollard as the architect, Zoellner Construction as the designer of the building.
The city has installed the required utility mains and approved a general building design, according to Buerck.
“We are working to finalize the plans,” he said. That process was scheduled to be completed this early this month.
Buerck explained the rationale for having the facility on Highway 51.
“This location fills a void in that area of town,” Buerck said. “Currently, our fire stations are clustered in the middle of the city, as emergency services should be. By adding a second station and a third (co-located with the impound building), we will ensure the best ISO (insurance services office) rating for homeowner insurance.”
“The positioning of both of the new fire stations has been an intentional and deliberate process, that combines filling voids in the coverage areas, both operationally for fire and rescue services, as well as strategically for ISO purposes,” said Perryville assistant fire/police chief Bill Jones. “In addition to helping separate fire equipment, so that during a severe weather event we would not lose all of our fire equipment which is currently in a two-block area downtown.
Jones said the goal is to not have the central fire station get phased out but rather have other spots for storing equipment.
“The new stations are not replacement stations but rather additional stations, the main fire station headquarters will remain at the downtown location with the two additional stations helping to provide coverage to the western and southeast parts of the city,” Jones said.
Jones explained how the new station on Highway 51 will improve efficiency.
“It will put us in a prime location, not only for today, but also for future expansion both in a westerly direction as well as the highway 51 corridor and the I-55 corridor, including Lake Dr. and the associated areas,” Jones said. “It also spreads out the firefighting equipment which is positive for several reasons.”
Jones detailed how with the three stations the risk of losing all of the department’s fire equipment due to severe weather, such as a tornado or damaging straight line winds, is far less, due to the positioning of the equipment in stations that have several miles separation from one another.
“These new stations will allow us to place more specialized equipment in the area of the city where they will prove the most efficient, such as the haz-mat unit near the industrial area as well as a more direct and closer route to the interstate, it will also allow for our heavy rescue unit to be in an area that is closer to Missouri Highway 51, U.S. Highway 61 and I-55.
A groundbreaking for the new station will likely be scheduled in the summer, according to Buerck.
As for a finish that, that will be announced when plans are finalized, Buerck noted.
The project cost is still to be determined.
“Final costs are not yet known as the plans and specifications are still being finalized,” Buerck said. “We know it will be higher than our original estimates because material costs and inflation are driving everything higher. To off set this, it is our intention to leave the office spaces unfinished for the time being and complete that in a later budget cycle.”
