PRESS RELEASE

The Cape Coral Fire Department posted the following on Facebook Friday:

“This afternoon the Cape Coral Fire Department along with city leaders, Sweet Sparkman Architects, and Wright Construction Group held a groundbreaking ceremony for new Fire Station 13, which will be located at 2025 NE 6th St. Fire Station 13 will incorporate areas currently covered by Stations 2 and 5, the city’s two busiest stations. The addition of this station is necessary to match the growth and increasing demand for service in this rapidly developing area.

“The station will house a four-person fire engine that provides fire suppression and Advanced Life Support (ALS) services and a battalion chief. The estimated completion date for the station is December 2023.”

The building will cost the city almost $7.5 million to complete, according to a report by winknews.com.

PRESS RELEASE

“We are very excited to announce that construction is finally starting on the rebuilding of Station 3, located at 3533 N. Highway 27, Sulphur (near the High Hope Road / Highway 27 intersection),” Ward Six Fire Protection District said in a Facebook post March 15.

“Our previous station was destroyed by Hurricane Laura in August 2020 and after more than 2 1/2 years, we are finally on the road to getting a new station.

“Our first delivery of construction items were delivered today at the exact time we were there putting up the banner. Soon, everyone will see a lot of activity at the location. Please be aware of construction vehicles, personnel and equipment entering and exiting the property.

“The new station is being funded by insurance proceeds and is set to be completed by mid-March, 2024.”

Terry Richards
The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.
(TNS)

Mar. 25—VALDOSTA — With flashing lights and blaring sirens, the latest addition to Valdosta’s firefighting fleet rolled into service Friday.

A new pumper truck, manufactured by the Sutphen Corporation, made its debut at the Valdosta Fire Department Station No. 1 at 106 S. Oak St. amid a crowd of city officials, firefighters, children and well-wishers. Fire personnel from Lowndes County, Quitman and Moody Air Force Base were on hand.

After an invocation, Fire Chief Brian Boutwell said the new truck is the first purchased with his input. Boutwell has headed the fire department for four years.

A vendor had contacted the department offering a “demo” unit that was being assembled, he said, but the vendor said the department would have to act fast or it could be sold to other interests.

Quick action by the Valdosta City Council in putting the truck on a meeting agenda and formally approving the purchase cut the usual wait time from 2.5 years to six months, the chief said.

The truck was ceremonially rolled back into one of the station’s bays manually by a crowd of school children wearing plastic fire helmets and assisted by a number of adults. Boutwell said the tradition dates back to the 19th century, when horse-drawn fire equipment couldn’t be backed into the bays by the horses and had to be done by hand by firefighters.

Shortly afterward, the truck rolled out of the station and into traffic.

Terry Richards is the senior reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times.

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Greenwood’s city council unanimously approved using nearly $426,000 in federal relief funds to help pay for fire trucks and security cameras, dailyjournal.net reported.

City council members voted 9-0 Monday night to use $314,814 of $425,943 in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to pay for a vendor surcharge on a fire engine and a ladder truck, the report said.

City officials ordered a ladder truck and an engine for the Greenwood Fire Department in 2021. The equipment was initially set to be delivered within 12 months of purchasing, however, city officials were contacted earlier this year by the seller, who indicated it was “no longer economically feasible” for them to build the trucks at the price the city contracted them to build at in 2021, a city official said last month.

If the city wanted them to be built anytime soon, then they would have to pay a surcharge. The surcharge was driven by supply chain complications, the city official said.

The remaining $111,129 in funds would be used to purchase new security cameras for the Greenwood Fieldhouse parking garage, and replace cameras at the Indy South Greenwood Airport and the Greenwood Police Department Training Center, according to the report.