By AFN News Staff/Ahwatukee Foothills News
Phoenix got a welcome assist with the help of U.S. Rep Greg Stanton in the form of $1 million to help with construction of the new Fire Station 74 in western Ahwatukee.
As a result of a deal hatched a year ago by Mayor Kate Gallego and former city Councilman Sal DiCiccio with City Manager Jeff Barton, he city already has appropriated the money to not only include the station’s construction on city-owned land on the northwest corner of 19th Avenue and Chandler Boulevard in the current capital budget but also provide $3 million in the 2023-24 General Fund budget – and $3 million annually after that – to cover operational costs.
The firefighters and paramedics who will staff that station already are being trained so that the station will be fully operational when it opens sometime next year.
It’s opening can’t come a minute too soon, according to testimony at a city council subcommittee hearing in February, when Executive Assistant Fire Chief Scott Walker explained how his department tries to “balance out” fire and emergency medical services in the city, especially to try and meet standards for response times.
“We really do unfortunately have to use a high-risk, low-frequency model” in balancing out those services, he said.
“I can assure you in Ahwatukee with Station 74 because the response times around that western end of South Mountain there were 15-16 minutes,” he said. “That was such a priority for response times. While not high-call volume, the risk was so great we needed that station and we’re able to get support for that station.”
Stanton concurred with that assessment in announcing the grant for the fire station along with a $959,752 for Phoenix’s water service lines to “help the city identify lead and galvanized lines in the water system for replacement to comply with the Lead and Copper Rule Revision.”
He said the fire station is need for Phoenix “to meet the rapidly growing demand for fire and emergency response in the community.
“Due to the increased demand and population growth, the fire department emergency response times currently exceed the National Fire Protection Association response standards in this area,” he said.