(Report from the fire district)The Falcon Fire Protection District Board of Directors voted on Wed. Aug. 4 to proceed with placing a request for a bond on the November ballot. The bond will cover the costs of new fire stations, apparatus and a training facility with a tower – all necessitated by rapid growth in the district. To fund added personnel and the maintenance on the additional facilities and apparatus, the board also voted to place a mill levy override on the ballot.The number of structures in the Falcon Fire Protection District has been increasing at a rate of 10 percent per year since the 2000 census, resulting in the need for the fire district to protect over 9,000 structures and 20,000 people. Studies show the fire district needs to provide this protection in seven minutes or less, and it cannot do that in most of its 133 square-mile area.Studies done in 1998, 2000 and 2004 by outside consultants have recommended station and apparatus placement as well as the need for training facilities. The district plans to build and equip two new stations. One station will provide protection to the south and west side of the district, and the other will provide protection to the central area. Station 1 needs remodeling, and there are plans to build a training tower on its site. Station 2, which protects the north end of the district, will be remodeled to provide sleeping quarters and a day room.”It’s important for us to reduce the response time when we are called out to a medical emergency or fire,” said Chief Trent Harwig. “We need staffed stations 24/7 as well as reduced-response distances to do that.”Two of the district’s current stations are not manned and depend on volunteers for emergency staffing. This often results in a 10-minute or more fire or medical crew response time.The Falcon Fire Protection District area covers an irregularly-shaped rectangle that reaches to Peyton Highway on the east, County Line Road on the north, as far west as Black Forest Road and almost to Highway 94 on the south. The district is also responsible for more than 40 square miles of wild land protection outside those boundaries.For more information, call Chief Trent Harwig or Alex Donnell at 495-4050.
