By Greg Jordan
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — A campus facility that would give Bluefield’s first responders space for expansion as well as a more centralized location for better response times is being studied by the city of Bluefield.
The Bluefield Board of Directors is seeking architectural and engineering consulting firms to aid in designing and constructing a campus that would serve the Bluefield Rescue Squad, the Bluefield Police Department and the Bluefield Fire Department, according to a legal advertisement published Thursday in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.
City Engineer Curtis French said the idea behind the campus is to relocate the city’s fire and police departments as well as emergency services to a more centralized location in the city so they can have quicker response times.
Some preliminary work has been done on the concept and different locations for a campus such as near North Street and Stadium Drive are being considered, but nothing has been set, French said. Engineering and architectural consultants can help the city determine whether such a campus would need one building or up to three buildings.
“It’s in the very, very preliminary stages,” French said. “We haven’t sat down and committed to a dollar amount.”
City Manager Cecil Marson said the fire department and police department both need room for expansion. For example, the fire department has outgrown its current quarters in the Bluefield Municipal Building. The police department, which is also located in the municipal building, has outgrown its space as well and needs more room for equipment.
The Bluefield Rescue Squad, which is located next door to Mitchell Stadium off Stadium Drive, is in a good spot when games are being played at the stadium, but the traffic can also hinder responses when ambulances are sent out, Marson said.
Stadium Drive can also get congested with traffic during events like the annual Beaver-Graham high school football game and when the Holiday of Lights displays bring the public to Lotito Park every Christmas season, Marson said.
“We’d like to give them a better location so they don’t have that issue,” he said.
A centralized campus for first responders can also be an economic generator, Marson said. Property values often improve when police and fire departments are nearby.
Once a plan for an EMS campus starts getting into place, the city will need to look for outside funding, Marson said.
“Hopefully in the future we’ll have something nice for all these departments,” he said.
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