By Brian Haas
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — The “ribbon cutting” was fitting Saturday morning: two fire hoses yanked apart to commemorate a brand new fire station.
Boynton Beach Fire Rescue opened up Station 5 to the public for the first time, giving tours of the $9.3 million facility that took nearly a decade of planning. The new station will serve the northeast section of the city, an area with occasionally longer response times.
“This is obviously designed to answer that,” said Steve Lewis, spokesman for the fire department. “The northeast section has needed this.”
Fire Chief William Bingham addressed about 100 people, recounting the long journey in planning, funding and building the new station. It will house the department’s full administrative services in addition to firefighters. Previously, the administrative and operation functions were split between fire stations.
The new building can also withstand Category 5 winds and will become a backup City Hall and emergency operations center during a disaster.
“Have I mentioned this building came in on-time and under budget?” Binghman said, drawing applause from the audience.
Others who spoke that morning borrowed the line liberally to laughter and more applause.
Joelle Adams, a Boynton Beach resident, was pleased with the new station’s location just off of Gateway Boulevard in the shadow of Interstate 95. She said she had a car accident near there a few months ago.
“The response time was pretty long,” she said. “I think it’s a good location, right off the freeway.”
The agency is hoping to keep response times to 4 minutes or shorter — well within the nationally accepted standard of 6 minutes.
That was good news to Jay Katz, who attended the expo with his wife and two boys. He was impressed that the station was even built.
“With all the cutbacks happening these days, it’s amazing they got this up,” he said. Then, with a smile, “And under budget.”
Copyright 2009 South Florida Sun-Sentinel