Government
BY LIZZY SPANGLER
Tomball opens new $7.4M fire station
STUEBNER AIRLINE RD.
2920
On Jan. 13, the Tomball Fire Department and Harris County Emergency Services District No. 15 held an open house for the new Station No. 4, located at 10333 Mahaffey Road, Tomball. “We are super excited that it’s open,” Tomball Fire Chief Joe Sykora said. How we got here The city and ESD 15 officials broke ground in June 2022, Community Impact previously reported. ESD 15 was formed over 15 years ago, and the first station it funded was Station No. 5 along Telge Road, which opened in 2016. “While we were just finishing Station [No.] 5, I saw this area developing and started looking for land over here and found some,” said Randy Parr, Tomball council member and former Tomball fire chief. “[I] did a presentation to the [ESD 15] com- missioners, and they agreed with it. ... We ended up getting the commissioners to go ahead and go along with purchasing the land here, and that was
six years or seven years ago.” The specifics
Sykora said the new station, which cost $7.4 million, was built to house firefighters for the next 50 years. It includes a decontamination area and a laundry room built for firefighters’ gear. “Once [firefighters] come back from a fire, they shower in there before they go inside the station,” Sykora said. “So the goal is to keep any carcinogens that we have on us outside of the station.” The new station is fully staffed with nine fire- fighters, Sykora said. The department intends to expand the station’s staff capacity to 12 firefight- ers over the next three years. “[The new station] covers from Willow Creek almost to the railroad tracks at Main Street in Tomball, goes as far north as the Montgomery County line, and as far south as Medical Complex and Hufsmith-Kohrville,” Sykora said.
MAHAFF E Y R
N
Tomball Fire Station No. 4
Cost: $7.4 million Built to house firefighters for 50 years Staffed with 9 firefighters
Responds to around 25 calls a month Reduced response times by 2 minutes SOURCE: TOMBALL FIRE DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACT
The takeaway Sykora said the station has reduced response times by two minutes since it opened in October, and it responds to around 25 calls a month. “It’s much busier than we ever expected it to be so far,” Sykora said.
DEPOT DISCO AT THE CO E C Saturday, March 16 5 - 9 p.m. POT HE O OT
Live DJ
Silent Disco
Dancing
Vendors
LED Games
Tomball Depot Plaza
201 S. Elm St.
11
TOMBALL - MAGNOLIA EDITION
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