Stations taking shape

By Basil Gist

Staff Writer

Both the Pilot Point and Aubrey fire departments are looking to keep up with the communities’ growth in the form of new stations.

Pilot Point has one on the way near Mobberly farms, while Aubrey is working on both a new station and a relocation.

“We’re a couple weeks behind schedule due to the recent rains and stuff, but I know last week we poured our first round of concrete,” PPFD Assistant Chief Brian Cox said on Monday. “I have another meeting tomorrow with the builder and architects to see what our next steps are. We should be getting close to getting the slab and driveways poured.”

The station has a Oct. 1 completion date so long as Plyler Construction can make up the lost time.

“We’ve visited with Plyler, and they’ve got some things in place to help close that gap and get us back on schedule,” Cox said.

The station will open with a staff of six pulled both from new recruits and existing personnel.

“Our current plan is to split the existing crew we have in the station,” Cox said. “We’ll take existing drivers and put them with a new captain and senior captains and put them with newly promoted or hired drivers. Then we’ll split our tailboard crews, so you have two senior firemen with new employees to help them bridge that gap.”

The department will look to supplement that staff’s salaries with another Safer Grant, which the department has received in years prior, though Cox said he and city staff have worked to ensure the budget can handle the onboarding costs if the department doesn’t receive the grant again.

Apparatus at the station will include an engine, ambulance and brush truck.

“The new engine for that station is being completed this week,” Cox said. “That fire engine should be in the city mid-February. The brush truck we’ve had for a few months. The ambulance, we’ve got the chassis for it sitting out back, and it’s supposed to ship to Houston this week to start the build which should be done May or June.”

He further shared that the department is looking to the future regarding when new stations will go in.

“Public safety is a conversation we have with each of the developers,” Cox said. “Right now, we have locations identified for five additional fire stations. We won’t know which one will be next until those subdivisions start building, and we see which direction we need to go.”

At Aubrey, Station No. 3, which will serve Silverado, Aspen Meadows, Providence Village and other communities along the 2931 corridor, is nearing completion with an early May opening.

“We already have the ambulance,” AFD Chief Eric Schlotter said. “We’ve had the squad for some time now, and the ladder truck should be done in May. We’ve hired the first nine personal to staff the station. It’ll be initially staffed with 18 personnel. We’ll hire another flight in May.”

Personnel comes with varying levels of certification, so some go to paramedic training or the fire academy after hiring, though all receive an orientation which the first flight have finished.

“It depends on their training level and certifications, but when we hire anyone, they go through an orientation process,” Schlotter said. “The nine people we hired went through a 12-day orientation and have now been assigned to their shifts.”

That station will feature the city’s new ladder truck which doubles as an engine as well as an ambulance and a squad vehicle.

“The squad is an ancillary vehicle to the ladder truck,” Schlotter said. “They are big, heavy and expensive to operate, … so it’s not uncommon to have a vehicle like the squad to take calls that you don’t need the ladder truck for—medical and service calls and things of that nature.”

It will also house the shift commander when it comes online.

Station No. 2, less a new station and more a relocation, has an August completion date.

“Station No. 2 is more a neighborhood-style fire station located at the entrance into Winn Ridge,” Schlotter said. “We don’t have a lot in terms of purchase of equipment because we’re just relocating an existing station. We already have a station two operating on Navo Road, so those personnel and apparatus will simply move over.”

Positioned on a smaller lot, Station No. 2 will build up instead of out.

“It’s going to be a two-story station because of the lot size, which is neat,” Schlotter said. “A lot of firemen like two-story fire stations [because] they’re more traditional. That station is coming out of the ground. The slab has been completed, [and] they’re working on masonry now and are about to start steel framing.”

It will also feature a small park for the community.

“It will have a covered pavilion with outdoor fireplace and police and fire themed park and dog run eventually,” Schlotter said.

Like Pilot Point, the Aubrey department has several additional stations in mind further down the line.

“We already tentatively have plans for stations four, five and six,” Schlotter said. “We’re working on land acquisition for Station No. 4 now and have a good idea on location for Stations No. 5 and 6. Station No. 4 is the one that’s very clearly on the horizon. I don’t think it will be long before we start to work on that location.”