Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
By RICHARD BOYD
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Commercial and residential growth is exploding in western St. Tammany Parish, and the Madisonville area fire district desperately needs to expand as well, department officials say.
More firefighters and new equipment, including ladder trucks, are needed, they said. And the main fire station behind Town Hall needs to be expanded, or a new station built elsewhere.
“We are becoming the fastest-growing fire district in the parish and there is no letup in sight,” Fire District 2 board Chairman John Beale said.
Rapid commercial and residential development, major expansions planned for the Stirling Properties development off Interstate 12 and plans for a large shopping center on the north side of I-12, are “pressing our capabilities to the limit,” he said.
What has long been a small-town and rural fire district is now caught in the vortex of an area rapidly being transformed by major suburban sprawl.
Beale and Chief Michael Stein described a crisis situation for the fire department, which provides protection for Madisonville, the area west to the Tangipahoa Parish line and north to Covington and halfway to Goodbee.
Beale told the Madisonville Town Council that to maintain its homeowners fire insurance rating of 5 in the town and 6 in the rest of the district, the department must buy at least one, and probably two, ladder trucks at about $475,000 each.
The main fire station is too small to house a ladder truck and will have to be expanded, he said.
Stein said there might be enough space between the fire station/police department complex and Town Hall to expand the station, but a better option may be to find land along Louisiana 22 on the west end of town for a new station.
The two did not ask the town for money, but asked that Madisonville leaders assist in mapping a strategy to cope with the growth. Mayor Peter Gitz and the council agreed to do so.
Stein said the three-station department is financed by 15.68 mills of property tax, which generated $630,000 in 2005. The tax is expected to generate more than $700,000 this year, he said.
Beale said the fire district would like to make improvements without raising taxes.
The district has been told by the state insurance rating agency that it must get a ladder truck for the main station or its rating may worsen. Ratings are based on a 1-to-10 scale, with 1 being the best, and fire insurance costs are based on the ratings.
The department would like to get a second ladder truck for its station on Louisiana 21, Stein said. The third station is on Oak Park Drive off Louisiana 22 west of town.
Beale said the fire board has been told that the proposed expansion of the Stirling Properties development that houses several major retail outlets now will include hundreds of new homes and commercial buildings up to five stories. “We don’t have a ladder truck at all now, and we have this coming,” he said.
With nine full-time firefighters, including Stein, and 18 volunteers, Beale said the district has to start moving toward a more full-time operation, hiring at least two new firefighters a year for the foreseeable future to serve the 10,000-and-growing number of residents in the district.