Helena’s third fire station could break ground in fall, still needs staff funding

Helena’s third fire station could break ground as early as fall, Fire Chief Jon Campbell said, but its final completion and when it’d be staffed are still in the air.

Campbell and other city officials updated Helena’s City Commission at a Wednesday administrative meeting.

The new fire station will be on the corner of Custer Avenue and Kelleher Lane, north of Costco, Campbell said.

The land there is already owned by the city and can be easily transferred, he said. The new station will sit adjacent to the Helena Wastewater Maintenance office at 2218 E. Custer Ave.

Ten design and architect firms submitted plans for the third fire station, and Fire, Facilities and Community Development staff interviewed two finalists, he reported to commissioners.

Each submitted plan has its own budget and timeline, Campbell said, so the exact future of the fire station will be up to city commissioners. Once fire and city staff determine their suggested finalist, the commissioners will need to vote to approve it.

However, there’s an ambitious chance work could start late summer, early fall, he said.

Ideally, the new station will come in two or three years, Campbell said in August, but it could be closer to six if supplies and contractors aren’t available.

Because of the foggy timeline, the city has some time before it has the space to hire more firefighters, spokesperson Jake Garcin said in an email.

But for now, while the station may be built, there’s no secured funding to fill it.

A bond for a third fire station was narrowly approved when it went to a public vote June 4, winning by less than 100 votes.

The staffing levy, which ran alongside it and included more police, failed with a 55% disapproval.

Helena had been looking to build a third fire station since 2006, when early evaluations reported the city was outgrowing its two-station model.

The big problem lies in Helena’s fire response time, a recent review states. The national standard for fire response was 6.5 minutes, but Helena Fire hovered around 12, according to previous IR reporting.

Both completed fire stations are south of the train tracks, opposite from where the town is steadily expanding. The city has cited slow emergency response times to push for an underpass where the railroad crosses Montana Avenue.

Even with a third fire station, response times won’t get any faster without a bigger crew, Campbell said.

Sometimes, 10 fire staff are on call, but over 90% of the year, Helena Fire only has eight people available, he estimated.

He wouldn’t be able to split his crew between three buildings, and the two southern stations at the Helena Civic Center and 650 Hannaford St. are better placed for emergency response than the new northern one.

Although the new station could be used for training or offices, Campbell said Helena won’t see better emergency services until it finds a way to fund staff.

The next steps for the fire station are to choose a finalist and draw up a budget, city officials said. Previous estimates had the cost at $7 million, according to news reports.

Once the architects and planners are secured, the city would consult its bond managers to write up the finer details on how the money would be used. Then it would get approval from the City Commission.

As for the staffing, it’ll be up to commissioners for when to put funding on the ballot.

“We need a vote,” Campbell said. “I don’t know what it’ll look like, and I’m grateful for the support we’ve had … but we can’t do anything without a vote.”