- Port Aransas Fire Station Project Groundbreaking
- New $10 million facility for Port Aransas EMS and Fire Department
- City is still waiting for more Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to come in
- Construction to be complete in Summer 2025
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Port Aransas on Wednesday for the Fire Station Project.
The Fire Station was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in August of 2017. Construction will cost $10.1 million for the proposed 19,270-square-foot building which will now include EMS, in addition to the fire department. The Port Aransas Volunteer Fire Department and EMS Department have both been staying in temporary buildings since 2017.
"It’s a long time coming. You know, we just can’t wait to get into a facility that can house all of us, and be comfortable, and to have a training facility and a workout room and you know, everybody gets their own bedroom, and we’ll have offices. Right now, we’re just kind of crammed into a very small space, so it’s definitely an exciting moment," Daniel Johnson, EMS Chief said.
The Port Aransas volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel have been patiently waiting for this new facility.
"Well right now, our fire department and our EMS department are in very very temporary, portable buildings. And they are very busy crews all year round, last week case and point. And so, they need this facility, not only for them now, but for our future and for our growth," Port Aransas Mayor Wendy Moore said.
The City of Port Aransas is still awaiting additional FEMA funding for the fire station project.
“Well, we’re still waiting on the final funding from this project. We have about $110 dollars in recovery from Hurricane Harvey, and we’re still asking for some more money from FEMA to get all those projects funded," Mayor Moore said. "So, this one, we’re still fighting for, but we’re moving forward because we know it’ll happen and we know they’ll come through. We’ve just gotta get the building started."
Construction for the new building is set to take about 400 days and it should be complete in Summer 2025. The engineer on the Fire Station Project is Gignac Architects, of Corpus Christi, the contractor is Victory Building Team, of Corpus Christi, and the Program Manager is Broaddus & Associates and Del Sol Consulting.
Port Aransas first responders believe that this new facility will allow more in-depth training which will lead to even better emergency care for the members of the community.
"Any time that you can train together, you work better. You work better on the scene, with the system. You know, they learn our equipment, we learn theirs, and we're currently cross training all of our EMS personnel to get fire certified as well," Johnson said.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
