Valley fire department breaks ground on new station

The Spokane Valley Fire Department took another step today in a multiyear program to improve fire protection in Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake. Fire commissioners and other district officials gathered for a groundbreaking for construction of a new Station No. 10 at 17217 E. Sprague Ave. in Greenacres. The 10,300-square-foot, three-bay station is being built by Ginno Construction of Coeur d’Alene for $1.6 million. It will replace the manufactured home and relatively small station facility that houses one of the district’s two pumper-ladder trucks. “It’s a good location. It gives us a lot of access east-west and north-south,” said station Capt. Bruce Hamner. The temporary facility for Station No. 10 opened in 2004 with a medical unit but was upgraded to house a pumper-ladder engine in an effort to improve commercial fire protection in Liberty Lake, a move that is lowering fire insurance rates there, officials said. “It’s one of our vital core stations,” said Commissioner Bill Anderson, who chairs the fire district board. Station No. 10 will be the third new station in the fire district in the past six years. It will be followed by more station construction over the next five or six years. Financing is coming from a voter-approved increase in regular property tax collections in 2007. The levy increase allowed for completion of a new two-bay station No. 9 last year at 12121 E. 32nd Ave. Station No. 8, completed in 2004 at Wilbur Road near Montgomery Drive, houses the district’s other pumper-ladder truck, and starting next year, it will be site of construction of a new headquarters office building. In coming years, the district plans to rebuild Station No. 6 at 6306 E. Sprague Ave. and move Station No. 3 at 2218 N. Harvard Road into Liberty Lake on the south side of Interstate 90. Property has been purchased for a new Station No. 11 at Barker Road and Euclid Avenue to provide protection on the north side of the Spokane River in that area. That project probably will wait for another five years or more, said Deputy Chief Larry Rider. All of the projects are being done without bonded indebtedness, which will save money for taxpayers over time by eliminating interest payments and borrowing costs, said Commissioner Joe Dawson. The contract for Station No. 10 was $300,000 below an engineering estimate, said Rider. Commissioners said the project will add several jobs to the local economy. Ginno Construction also built the administration building for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department in 2008 as well as that city’s Station No. 3 in 2002. Work should be completed by mid-autumn. The station is one block east of Flora Road.