The city plans to spend about $7.5 million to combine two fire stations, a police station and EMS facilities under one roof in the South End, at a new public safety center that could be named after late Police Chief David A. Provencher, city officials announced Wednesday morning.

"For far too long, the needs of our emergency personnel...have been neglected," Mayor Jon Mitchell said at Fire Station 2, on Pleasant Street just north of downtown. "We will be constructing a consolidated public safety facility in the South End."

Mitchell and several other city officials announced plans to spend $500,000 on a feasibility study and preliminary design for the proposed facility, as part of the city's $5.5 million bond for its latest capital improvement plan (CIP). An additional $7 million, for construction, is planned in a capital bond during fiscal year 2017, according to city documents.

Mitchell and Ari Sky, the city's chief financial officer, said the study and design work could take six months to a year, followed by a year to 18 months of construction. Fire Chief Michael Gomes said it will be New Bedford's first new fire station in more than 60 years.

"No fire chief in New Bedford has had to plan for a new station since Chief Milton Andrews in 1952," Gomes said, ticking off the names of eight fire chiefs who have served since then. "It's a project I look forward to."

The CIP's five-year spending program also includes $950,000 for improvements at City Hall, including a fire alarm system and foundation work; $500,000 for upgrades at fire station 2; habitat enhancements and other projects at Buttonwood Park Zoo; and more. City Council will decide in coming weeks whether to approve the $5.5 million bond.

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About two years ago, officials with Preston Volunteer Emergency Services realized the population of the area was growing so much that its services would need to expand to a new location.

The new PVES EMS station at 3763 F.M. 406 in Pottsboro wrapped up construction this month, and over the past week EMS personnel have been busy moving in. The new station is located just east of State Highway 289 on the north side of County Road 406 and is home to two ambulances, medics, EMTs and all of the equipment needed to save lives.

"We have two medics on duty 24/7," PVES President Mike Davis said. "... It's just going to be a better place for them to work."

He said the EMS station is currently operational, but some minor finalization work is still taking place. A grand opening is expected to take place in the coming weeks, but Davis wasn't sure when PVES would be ready to have that happen.

The station includes all new features for personnel, including new equipment and better amenities to make the medics on duty more comfortable during their shifts. Davis said PVES is also working on remodeling the original station, which will continue to serve as a fire station. It will soon feature a remodeled kitchen and community room.

PVES's emergency medical service department is responsible for a 96-square-mile area, Davis said, which includes Pottsboro, Flowing Wells and Mineral Creek. With that much ground to cover, it didn't make sense to have a single station off to the side of that area.

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A woman was taken to the hospital Tuesday after she was injured when she slid down a firefighter pole while touring a St. Paul fire station.

She sustained a non-life threatening injury, St. Paul Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard said Wednesday.

The fire department is investigating what happened, including whether an employee allowed the woman to use the pole, because "we don't usually let people do that," Zaccard said of visitors trying the poles.

The woman was among a group of adults touring Station 1 at West Seventh Street and Randolph Avenue. Such tours are "a very common thing," Zaccard said. "We welcome people into our stations and we enjoy meeting them."

Zaccard said he can't discuss the woman's injury because of a patient privacy law.

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Fire Chief Steve Russell said the new 2016 Spartan pumper with a six-man cab was financed mostly with a FEMA grant of $334,000.

The remainder came from the department's general budget. It replaces a truck that was 27 years old. He said the new one should provide service to the department for the next 20-25 years.

The Spartan was built in North Dakota and purchased from Anchor-Richie of Taylorsville. Russell said the grant process took about 15 months from application to delivery.

The truck can feed hoses or do water shuttles for quick dumps, with the ability to haul 1,000 gallons of water and pump at the rate of 1,250 gallons per minute.

Level Cross has three large trucks including two engines, a rescue squad truck, a pickup truck and a Tahoe.

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