INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a contract with Vero Beach-based Barth Construction for a new fire station to be built on 4th Street and 43rd Avenue in the unincorporated county.
The $2.17 million contract for Station 13 includes site preparation on the parcel, utilities, paving, landscaping and the construction of a two-bay fire station built to modified Miami-Dade wind-load building codes.
County Budget Director Jason Brown said the county uses a prototype design of the fire stations to save money. Construction is expected to take about 10 months.
Also on Tuesday, Commissioner Tim Zorc presented research that he’d assembled on fire-rescue call volume around the county and asked his colleagues to hold a workshop to look at where the need is and to come up with a plan for adding fire stations in the areas that are currently under-served.
“There’s a lot of information out there, it’s about just kind-of layering it and putting it together,” said Zorc, who had worked with Fire-Rescue administrative staff and county technical staff to plot calls for service on maps.
Zorc commented that he frequently listens to the dispatch scanner and often hears that fire-rescue resources and vehicles are stretched all over the county, especially in the busy winter tourist and snowbird season. He said the county’s ambulances are especially scarce, since more than 80 percent of the calls are for medical service, not for fires.
One area Zorc identified in his study of the call statistics and demographics was Vero Lake Estates. The last station to be built, Station 12, opened in 2009 to serve the Gifford community. Since then, the county has focused on upgrading some of its older fire stations that are in bad shape or needed new roofs.
Commissioners agreed to hold a workshop on the topic.
