At the City Council last night the Council approved a purchase agreement to purchase a vacant 3.6 acre parcel of land at the intersection of Dell and Lindwood as the site of future Fire Station #4.
Currently, we have three stations. One in the NW quadrant of the City near Round Lake Park. One in the center of the City adjacent to City Center. And one in the SE quadrant of the City on Homeward Hills Road. Station #4 is planned for the SW quadrant. The fire suppression needs of NE quadrant, which is mostly the Golden Triangle industrial park, are handled jointly between our forces and the Edina Fire Department’s Tracey Avenue station.
We agreed to a proposed purchase price for the land of approximately $1,900,000. The site itself is actually a little larger than we needed, so we are making plans to spin some of it off for other commercial development. I don’t know how much or of what nature, but that’s our general concept at this time.
The City has been planning for years for Fire Station #4. It completes our planned facilities system for the Fire Department. In addition to building the new Fire Station, we must also recruit and train about 20 new fire fighters to staff the station, in addition to the new equipment to equip it. I would like to think that we can do the whole thing for under $5,000,000. I think that’s a realistic goal.
Kudos to Economic Development Manager Dave Lindahl for his deal brokering on the purchase of the land. That wasn’t an easy task. Also kudos to Fire Chief George Esbensen for his sustained focus on this project. That’s not easy either in an environment that is driven more by sporadic event after sporadic event after sporadic event. Eden Prairie citizens will be proud of this new Fire Station. I know they will.
