Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

North County Fire Protection District to close Station 3

The North County Fire Protection District will be closing Station 3 in the Olive Hill area.

During the Feb. 27 NCFPD board meeting, the board heard a presentation on a study about closing Station 3 and voted 5-0 to declare the property at 4157 Olive Hill Road to be surplus to the district’s needs.

“The board voted to declare surplus property and move ahead with sale,” NCFPD fire chief Steve Abbott said.

NCFPD Station 5 has been located at 5906 Olive Hill Road since 2015. Station 5 was previously on Old River Road, and when the fire district selected the site for the replacement fire station one of the considerations was the possibility of consolidating Station 3 and Station 5 resources.

Last year a trial study moved Station 3 personnel and the station’s ambulance to Station 5 to determine if the entire district was better served by meeting increased demands for service, providing an equivalent level of service throughout the district and maintaining a high level of customer service. The entire North County Fire Protection District comprises 92 square miles.

Calls within the Station 3 response area were monitored closely to ensure that the area did not have a disproportionate change in levels of service and that included monitoring the average travel time to calls within the Station 3 area compared to for the rest of the district. The evaluation also included analyzing outcomes on individual significant calls for service and monitoring customer feedback.

“There was a very negligible difference between the response time to that area and the other suburban and rural portions of the district,” Abbott said.

The total response time includes turnout time as well as travel time. The 49 emergency calls for the Station 3 area during the six-month trial period, which represented 1.6 percent of the district’s total calls, had an average turnout time of 1 minute, 19 seconds and an average travel time of 8:21 for a total response time of 9:40. The 731 calls warranting response from Stations 2 in Winterwarm, 4 in Pala Mesa, 5, and 6 in Rainbow averaged a turnout time of 1:20 and travel time of 7:57 for a total response time of 9:17. The 23-second difference is approximately 1.6 percent slower than the other responses.

Station 1 on Ivy Street has a more urban service area and was not included in the comparison.

The trial closure of Station 3 included designating Station 5 as a “priority cover” station in which every reasonable effort was made to ensure that Station 5 remained covered by a district or mutual aid regional resource. The district retained “excellent” customer service ratings.

“We’ve made it a point to make sure that the Olive Hill station, the new Olive Hill station, has coverage capacity,” Abbott said.

The relocation allowed for a full-time ambulance at Station 5 and reduced travel distance by more than two miles to the calls run by Rescue Ambulance 115. The trial closure of Station 3 also reduced district utility expenses by approximately $1,000 each month while moving resources two miles closer to the state Route 76 corridor saved approximately $4,000 in travel-related operations and maintenance costs during the six-month period.

For some Morro Hills residents, the Oceanside Fire Department’s Station 5 at 4841 North River Road would be the closest responder, although most calls within the North County Fire Protection District will still be served by NCFPD stations.

“We’re actually still the closest,” Abbott said.

The declaration of surplus process begins with a 40-day period for park or recreation agencies, school districts, affordable housing developers and nonprofit neighborhood enterprise associations to provide a written offer for the property. The district can obtain bids from other interested buyers if no priority entity submits an acceptable offer. The district expects to receive $800,000 to $1,200,000 for the property which would be considered one-time revenue and used for other facility needs.

In July 2014, the district issued a contract to Sullivan Solar Power to provide photovoltaic energy facilities for Stations 1, 2, 3 and 6 and for the fleet maintenance facility. The solar generation at Stations 1, 2 and 3 utilizes carports. The district is utilizing a California Energy Commission loan payable over 12 and one-half years to finance the solar energy installations, and the loan must be paid off before the sale or transfer of a property. NCFPD staff is conducting a cost benefit analysis to determine whether it is preferable to include the photovoltaic system in the sale of the Station 3 property or whether to relocate that system to Station 4.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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