JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Booming growth on Jacksonville's Southside has created a need for a new fire station in the area, and one is on the way.
District 11 City Council Member Danny Becton, who represents the area, announced Monday that a recent purchase and sale agreement by the city will bring a fire station to Baymeadows Road East and Gate Parkway.
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Fire and rescue services in that area have been stretched thin over the past several years as more homes and businesses have popped up in Baymeadows.
Fire Station 44, which serves the area now, is one of the busiest stations in the city. Firefighters at that station and two other Southside fire stations are called out so often that nearby units have to pick up calls for the area, which can hurt response times.
Those higher response times increase the cost of insuring a home in the area.
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But that's expected to change after money was appropriated in the city's current budget to fund a new Station 63 to pick up the slack.
Becton and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Kurt Wilson met with the public at 6 p.m. Monday to talk about future plans for the station.
The cost to buy the land is about $1.8 million. It will take approximately 18 to 24 months to build the station, but in the meantime, funds were also allocated to create a temporary station while the new station is being built.
"It will relieve the problem immediately once we get that station up and running, which -- approximately -- will be about December," Becton said.
Extra firefighters and equipment destined for the future Fire Station 63 are already being used at Station 44. Those added services mean more protection for the Baymeadows area, but they don't lower homeowner insurance rates like a newly built fire station should.