Farmersville fire station design underway

Farmersville City Council unanimously agrees to move forward with the design of the city’s new, upcoming fire station

FARMERSVILLE – The city of Farmersville is another step closer to getting its new fire station now that city council has approved a contract on the future station’s design.

On Aug. 28, the Farmersville City Council met to discuss the contract to design and build a $7 million fire station. Currently, the city’s fire department operates out of city hall, which was never meant to host working fire fighters. The facility will be entirely new to the city, which has never had a fire station built specifically to house fire personnel, and will be located at 881 Farmersville Blvd and construction is expected to be finished by October 2024.

The station will be entirely new to the city, which has never had a fire station constructed specifically to house fire personnel.

“(The fire department) is operating out of city hall right now,” Farmersville city manager, Jennifer Gomez. “That building was never made to have a fire department operating there, but everyone is making it work.”

The station’s groundbreaking ceremony will be scheduled after the design is approved at a future meeting. According to Gomez, the new fire station will include new sleeping quarters, a gym, a common room with a fully functioning kitchen and any other necessities the firefighters need. The station is being designed to allow for the potential growth of the department over the years as well.

The fire department currently has a battalion chief and three firefighters (one for each shift) as full-time employees. The city plans to grow the department over a 10-year period to have two firefighters for each shift. In addition to the full-time employees, the department has about 30 volunteers that work alongside full-time staff, that way the department has three to four people working at the fire station every day.

“We knew the size of the lot they would need to work within, so that guided them (the designers) on the shape and size of the facility,” Gomez said.

The city engineer helped develop a general concept for the future layout earlier this year. Once everything was identified as far as what needed to be included with cost estimates, the city advertised for requests for qualifications; then based on those qualifications, invited firms to submit proposals for the design-build process. This brings us up to date with awarding the contract to Zumwalt Construction.

Gomez noted that large projects like the fire station typically take longer to complete, but the city’s choice to have Zumwalt do both the design and construction.

“The idea of constructing a new fire station has been around for over 20 years, but without funding, we figured it was still a long-term plan,” Gomez said. “It was through Senator Hurtado’s office that we received the $7 million.”

The project started off with the city’s request for funding from the state in spring 2022. Once the state budget had been approved to include $7 million for the new station, staff looked at other fire stations and spoke to other fire departments for information as to what amenities should be included at a fire station. Then, council took their time going over the costs of the project before signing the contract for the project in order to ensure they stayed within their $7 million budget.

On Oct. 25, Senator Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) presented Farmersville with their $7 million dollar check to fund the city’s new station.

“Because of (Hurtado’s) strong and persistent efforts, the state funding that has been approved will allow us to build a fire station that’s fully functioning at a centralized site in our city,” former Farmersville Mayor Paul Boyer said during the ceremonial check presentation in October 2022.