Planned Alvin EMS/fire station to be in strategic location – Chron

By John DeLapp, CORRESPONDENT

The city of Alvin has broken ground on a new station that will serve both fire and EMS departments.

The city of Alvin has broken ground on a new station that will serve both fire and EMS departments.

Photo: Vector_master - Fotolia

The city of Alvin has broken ground on a new station that will serve both fire and EMS departments.

The city of Alvin has broken ground on a new station that will serve both fire and EMS departments.

Planned Alvin EMS/fire station to be in strategic location

In an effort to put its fire and emergency medical services in a more strategic location, the city of Alvin has broken ground on a new station that will serve both departments.

The 29,310-square-foot building will be at the intersection of East South Street and Bellaire Boulevard and is scheduled to open next November.

The construction is estimated to cost $11.7 million, funded through certificate of obligation bonds.

The location puts the two departments near the Texas 35 Bypass and will give firefighters and emergency medical service officials quick access to all areas of the city.

Its in a good location near the 35 Bypass, which is eventually going to be part of the Grand Parkway, said Ron Schmitz, director of operations for Alvin Emergency Medical Services. South Street is also one of our major east-west thoroughfares; so its a good location as far as being on some main lanes of traffic and will give us good access around the city.

Replacing aging facilities

The new facility will replace a 50-year-old fire station and a 40-year-old EMS station. Both needed some major upgrades, Schmitz said.

The project has been several years in the making, he said. The fire department has known they need to update their station because theyre outgrowing it. (The EMS station) was remodeled about 20 years ago, but we were a volunteer service at that time. Weve done some in-house remodeling, but we are steadily outgrowing our building and it is getting some maintenance issues; so it was time for us to expand a little bit to give us some growing room. So, we decided to combine our efforts and build one facility to house both departments.

The current EMS station lacks sufficient garage space.

We have five ambulances and we only have four bays; so one has to be outside all of the time, Schmitz said. So, we are adding a bay to give us more capability. We also have an emergency management command vehicle that is too large to fit in our bay; so this will also be able to be stored inside as well.

The planned station will have other amenities that will benefit the city, Schmitz said.

Training room, more parking planned

One of the things Im excited about is that its going to include a large training room that will hold desks and seating for 100 people and if you take the desks out and just have chairs, it will hold more than 200 people, he said. That will give us a nice capability, because there really is no other large room or space that the city has like that other than our senior center and that is pretty well booked most of the time for senior events.

The room can be divided into two separate spaces and also will have an attached kitchen.

Parking will also be more than ample.

Well have over 100 parking spaces available, Schmitz said. One of the things we have seen is that stations will build nice training facilities, but if you have a big event, you cant park everyone. Our volunteer fire department is quite large one of the largest in this part of Texas so, if we have a large fire or even just a big event, its not inconceivable for them to have 50 or 60 members show up at one time.

The training room is also large enough to serve as Alvins command center during disaster operations.

The building plans also will help protect the station during periods of heavy rain.

Its being built in a floodplain next to Mustang Bayou, but we watched that area during Hurricane Harvey, and while the road flooded some, it was mostly passable, Schmitz said. The (new stations) location was never covered by water, but we are going to elevate the property about 4 feet.

John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com.

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Planned Alvin EMS/fire station to be in strategic location - Chron