BURLINGTON, Iowa — On Nov. 7 Burlington voters will decide whether or not the city can borrow money needed to build the new proposed Fire Station No. 3.
Burlington currently has two fire stations, with a third satellite location. Since October 2018, the Burlington Fire Department has operated an ambulance-only, two-person crew at the satellite location — a "temporary" Station 3 at 3400 Mt. Pleasant St. No fire units operate out of there.
The fire department wanted to start operating out of that location because it identified a need in the northwest part of its service area.
"We felt there needed to be a dedicated site for faster response times in that northwest side of the community," Deputy Fire Chief Nathan Toops said. "Five years ago, all the way up to today, we identified that basically a third of our total calls happened in the northwest quadrant of the community."
Four minutes or less is the national response time standard. The Burlington Fire Department realized it couldn't achieve that from its two fire stations. The dots on the map below show where calls have come from. Of those, 14,216 were within a four-minute response time from Central Station or Station 2, but 6,190 were outside that range.
"Time is everything," Toops said. "Items, materials burn faster now than they ever did. The golden seconds for when somebody has a cardiac arrest is also a factor."
They're able to respond within four minutes from the temporary third station, but it was only ever meant to be temporary.
"We don't feel it's sustainable for much longer," he said.
The new proposed Station No. 3 would be built at 2100 North Roosevelt Ave. and serve a population of 6,235 residents. It would include a firefighting training facility, private sleeping quarters and a decontamination space.
On Nov. 7, 60% of voters will have to approve the referendum for the city to be able to spend the money to build the new station.
"It's a general obligation bond referendum in Iowa, when we, for these types of facilities, we're required to go to the voters and ask for permission for bonding for whatever amount for these types of facilities," City Manager Chad Bird said. "We're asking for up to $7 million, geo bond authority, and we feel that will substantially cover the type of facility that we're asking for."
Property taxes could increase up to 63 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation to repay the bond. However, Bird is hoping to keep that lower, through grants or using cash on hand to prioritize the new fire station over some other projects.
"While it could be a 64-cent increase in the levy rate, my hope is that I can work that through and that it wouldn't be that much," he said.
Toops is unsure which way the vote will go but is hopeful it will pass.
"It's going to serve an underserved portion of the community," Toops said. "Voting yes would be to increase the overall health and safety of the entire community."
There are open house meetings to learn about the project on Tuesday, Oct. 10 and Tuesday, Oct. 24. Both are at Central Fire Station at 418 Valley Street from 5-7 p.m. with a presentation beginning at 5:30.