St. Cloud City Council Approves Asking Voters to Support Sixth Fire Station

(KNSI) — St. Cloud City Council Monday night approved a ballot measure asking voters to support a sixth fire station to serve the growing area around Tech High School.

The wording will ask residents to approve spending up to $43.5 million for the station, which would be on the corner of 33rd Street South and Highway 15.

After the meeting, St. Cloud Fire Chief Matt Love spoke with KNSI News and explained why adding a station in one neighborhood would help the rest of the city. “Even if you put a new station in one part of the city, it betters response times on the other side of the city. And as funny as that is, it’s because you’re pulling resources from less far away to get to the emergency.”

The proposed fire station would include maintenance bays, and a key addition, according to Chief Love, will be space to practice and teach firefighting. “We have also added a lot of training space. And that’s a critical need in our community. Our firefighters need access to live fire training, and they don’t have it right now.”

A training tower would prepare the department to attack fires in single-family homes, several-story buildings, and commercial buildings. The department hopes the facility can also be a regional training center for neighboring departments.

If approved, planning would start in 2025, and construction would be ready to start the following year. The fire station would be completed in 2027. After the latest budget is completed, an exact cost for each property owner will be available in late August or early September.

The St. Cloud Fire Department is on pace to respond to over 10,000 calls this year, a roughly 32% increase from the previous few years.

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