Donna Swicegood | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Jan. 8, 2008

The Statesville City Council is moving closer to finalizing plans for a new fire station near the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and Martin Lane.

On Monday, Ken Newell and Jim Stumbo, from the Gastonia firm Stewart Cooper Newell Architects, showed city leaders a number of photos of fire stations the group has designed - in full or in part - for numerous cities in 18 different states.

Council members seemed most impressed by a 7,400-square-foot facility the group designed in Rock Hill, S.C.

Newell pointed out several features of what he called “the modern fire station,” the definition of which he said has changed in many ways during the past three decades.

The most significant of those changes, he said, involves the rise of women in the workplace. “Female firefighters were virtually unheard of 30 years ago,” Newell said.
That situation has created a problem unique for the people who design fire stations, where employees spend large amounts of time together and where sleeping quarters and bathroom facilities have to allow for the privacy of both sexes.

About 65 percent of new stations solve that problem by having one-person bedrooms, showers, sinks and toilets, Newell said.

When all the facilities are private, the gender of the firefighter using them at any particular time would not matter, he explained.

“There is one thing you can be sure of if you predict that your department will be 80 percent this and 20 percent that,” Newell said. “And that is that you are going to be wrong.”

Newell said other factors come into play in the construction of new fire stations, such as requirements for larger trucks and other equipment, separating the parking of emergency from non-emergency vehicles and the installation of training features.

“We really try to talk clients into take advantage of possible training opportunities,” Newell said. “They can really improve the quality of the station and they are factored into the ISO ratings.”

Insurance Services Office ratings are calculated by a number of factors related to emergency services. The biggest factor in determining a municipality’s ISO Rating is response time and that is where the added station - the city’s fourth - will play a major role.

“This station will serve the whole northeast part of the city,” said City Manager Rob Hites.

But it is likely going to be at least a year and a half before the station is up and running.

Newell said that the design process takes about four to six months and construction could take more than a year to complete.

And Statesville has not yet chosen the architect.

Newell’s group is up against a Hickory firm, Cbsa Architects Inc., which will give a presentation to city leaders within three weeks, Hites said.

Other things could also factor into the city’s plans.

Mayor Pro Tem Michael Johnson and others pointed out that the city would be better served if it could purchase the land surrounded on two sides by the L-shaped property the city purchased for the new station earlier this year.

The added property would essentially make a large square and allow for easier turns to made by the large emergency vehicles. The land would also allow for additions to the station house.

“We’ve never added to a fire station before,” said Mayor Costi Kutteh. “But we may need to add something ancillary to the station in the future.”

One of those things could be a police substation, which Newell said was becoming a popular feature to new fire stations.

Construction for the new station is currently budgeted at $1.05 million.

Newell said his firm typically charges 8 percent of the construction cost, which would add another $80,000 to the project if there are no significant overruns.

Station No. 4:
The Statesville City Council has not made a final decision on the new city fire station, but preliminary plans call for the following:

- Location: Near the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and Martin Lane. (map it)

- Size: 7,400 square feet

- Cost: Approximately $1.13 million

- Service area: northeast quadrant of the city

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