- KRIS 6 News interviewed Jason Bardon, who is the Assistant Fire Chief for the Aransas Pass Fire Department. He said that his team is growing and will need new facility.
- APFD said that his department has had trouble hiring a female firefighter because of their current facility.
- The Police Chief of Aransas Pass Police Department said that it is hard for the employees to do their job effectively.
The police and fire station in Aransas Pass have been facing issues when it comes to the amount of space that they have. Workers said it's making their job difficult.
Aransas Pass Assistant Fire Chief Jason Bardon said that his team is growing and will need new facility.
“We’ve pretty much outgrown our facility. It was really meant for two firefighters and right now, we have four firefighters in duty,” Bardon said.
Bardon said that his department has had trouble hiring a female firefighter because of their current facility.
“We only have one facility for everyone to sleep in and we added a lock for the bathroom, so in case we do hire a female firefighter, they will be able to lock the door behind them.”
The fire department is not the only building needing these renovations. The Aransas Pass Police Department said they too are having issues with spacing, which is causing them to spend more money.
Chief Eric Blanchard, with the Aransas Pass Police Department, said that it is hard for the employees to do their job effectively.
“We’ll have our own localized training quarters as well, so we are not having to pay a venue out of our training budget, and we can repurpose those funds more for quality training for public safety officials,” Blanchard said.
However, Blanchard said that they problems don’t stop there. He said that it can be hard to maintain privacy in the building due to the lack of the space that they have in the building.
“Current challenges that we have with our detectives is when we get a major event to where we have multiple witnesses or people to interview, they only have one office that they can do private interviews,” he said.
Aransas Pass City Manager Gary Edwards said that this new building would not affect taxpayers.
“There will be no tax increase for this. We have a very strong credit rating. We have a very strong rating as far as our current credit,” Edwards said.
Aransas Pass’ city manager said financing for the stations’ enhancements will not be approved until February.
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