NCFPD to replace Station 4 on existing site

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The North County Fire Protection District will be replacing Station 4 on its current site.

A 5-0 NCFPD board vote March 28 authorized district staff to execute a contract with Erickson-Hall Construction for construction management services on a new Station 4 at the current site in the 4300 block of Pala Mesa Drive. “They will oversee the pre-construction, the design of the site, and the build,” said NCFPD fire chief Keith McReynolds.

The board action also directed NCFPD staff to allocate a capital facility reserve account in the Fiscal Year 2023-24 preliminary budget for debt servicing of the Station 4 construction.

The existing fire station was constructed as a temporary facility in 1979. “We have a 40-year-old modular station that’s been on that site,” McReynolds said.

A full station replacement is needed to meet the increasing service demands along the Interstate 15 corridor and the greater Pala Mesa region. NCFPD staff considered both the current site and a county-owned site near the intersection of State Route 76 and Interstate 15.

The County of San Diego purchased that 18.49-acre property from the California Department of Transportation and will develop the property as a public safety facility. The Sheriff’s Department will not need the entire 18.49 acres, and the NCFPD had expressed a desire to share that land and have its new Station 4 building on that property.

(The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is reviewing the possibility of including a CalFire station on the parcel, and the Rainbow Municipal Water District may use some of the land for the new district headquarters.)

A combination of grant funding opportunities and the county’s timeline to develop the property led to the decision to build the new fire station on the current site. “It could be five to seven years before the county property is developed,” McReynolds said. “We felt that we needed to get Station 4 going on the current site.”

The 2022 state budget earmarked $500,000 for the Station 4 replacement. The contract with Erickson-Hall, which is headquartered in Escondido, is for $1.3 million. Change orders increasing the contract to up to $1.5 million may be approved without subsequent NCFPD board authorization.

“We have not developed a timeline,” McReynolds said.

Erickson-Hall will conduct surveys and other studies, and an environmental statement will be approved before a request for qualifications for construction contractors is issued.

“The project will start immediately,” McReynolds said. “We will develop a timeline.”