Roomies?

The fire station optimization study outlined in my last three posts contemplates building either three or four fire stations, but using existing staff and apparatus--not additional personnel. It provides a nice increment of improvement in LF&R's coverage, and I believe it represents an exceptional return on investment.  In actuality, the City's Capital Improvement Program has included new fire stations for several years, but has been stalled, in part because of the City's inability to fund the large ongoing cost of new firefighters for new companies.

Cities all over the United States have been laying off police officers and firefighters, closing facilities, and in some cases even going bankrupt.  We have been spared some of the carnage here in Lincoln, but all of my peers in public safety management recognize that we are facing a new reality in government, and have to come up with new solutions.  Looking at the fire coverage problem from another vantage point has allowed us to come up with a more viable option for serving the City as well as we can with the resources citizens are willing and able to provide.

Another unfunded project that lingers in the City's Capital Improvement Program is a police substation in southeast Lincoln. This would be a facility where about 40-50 police employees would report to duty.  Officers would pick up their cars and equipment here, attend the shift briefing, and hit their beats.  This is where their locker room, report room, supplies, evidence drop-off, interview rooms and so forth would be located.

A south Lincoln police station is imperative, because officers working in deep southeast Lincoln are presently deploying at shift change from police headquarters downtown.  The time lag and fuel usage is horribly inefficient.  Two other substations of this type (27th and Holdrege and 49th and Huntington) work very well, and we are long overdue for a similar arrangement in the southeast area.  As cities grow, you inevitably see police stations decentralized in this fashion for the same reason: time and gas.

So, if we have a couple of fire stations in southeast Lincoln in our future, and a police substation as well, why not be roomies?  It is an attractive idea. We could share land, parking, locker and PT facilities, restrooms, foyers, hallways, multi-purpose room, and probably have some savings in basic stuff like concrete, HVAC, and footings, data, and more.

I'm betting a joint facility would be significantly less expensive than two separate facilities. It would also be a nice step in something else I've been up to as public safety director: improving the working relationship between police and fire personnel.  We've made some nice strides in the past few months, and this would be another good step in that direction.