PRAIRIEVILLE With a booming population, Fire Protection District 3 better known as the Prairieville Fire Department opened its fifth fire station this summer to meet the demands of the fastest growing area of Ascension Parish. <\/p>\n
But the area may need another five stations to meet the demand. <\/p>\n
The $1.4 million station on the corner of Bluff Road and Alligator Bayou Road is the second of two stations built in the area in the last three years, as new business and residential developments seem to break ground weekly in the unincorporated community of Prairieville, in the northern reaches of the parish. <\/p>\n
\"We're no longer country. We're really city now, in the Prairieville area,\" said Walter Leftwich, chairman of the fire district's board of commissioners. <\/p>\n
And no slowdown in growth is anticipated. <\/p>\n
Already home to several Ascension Parish public schools, Prairieville is where three new elementary schools and a new middle school will be built in the next several years, and where the School Board will be doing site planning for a new high school it hopes to build one day. <\/p>\n
Last week, Baton Rouge General Medical Center announced it will be opening what it calls a neighborhood hospital at La. 73 and Interstate 10 in Prairieville. <\/p>\n
\"We're growing every day,\" said District 3 Fire Chief Mark Stewart. <\/p>\n
The new fire station on Bluff Road will \"get us closer to the people needing us\" in that area, he said. <\/p>\n
And, Stewart said, the additional station helps firefighters get to medical and fire calls quickly in a parish where traffic hold-ups are increasingly a part of daily life. <\/p>\n
Ten years ago, when District 3 was at three fire stations, Property Insurance Association of Louisiana, which evaluates and rates fire departments ratings that affect property owners' fire insurance costs said the district needed five more stations. <\/p>\n
\"We've completed two of them,\" Stewart said. <\/p>\n
The district's fourth station was opened on Duplessis Road in 2014. The other fire stations include the main one on La. 73 and two others, on La. 929 and Old Jefferson Highway. <\/p>\n
Fire districts are rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the highest ranking. Fire Protection District 3 has a rating of 4, an improvement over the rating of 5 it had when it was established in 2003, Stewart said. <\/p>\n
The fire district's operations are funded by two 10-mill property taxes and a portion of one-third of a half-cent sales tax. The proceeds of that one-third portion is split among the three fire districts in Ascension, Stewart said. <\/p>\n
Covering about 35 square miles and serving 40,000 residents, Prairieville's fire department answered close to 2,000 fire and medical calls last year, he said. <\/p>\n
With the calls up at this point this year, compared to the same time last year, the district expects to answer 2,200 calls in 2017, the fire chief said. <\/p>\n
The fire station on Bluff and Alligator Bayou roads is \"important for the fire district, but most importantly for residents in that area, not only for fire protection services, but for EMS services,\" said Teri Casso, parish councilwoman for the Prairieville area and former board member for Fire District 3. <\/p>\n
The new 6,000-square-foot station that opened in June was designed by Domain Design Architecture of Baton Rouge. The firm of ANR Construction, also of Baton Rouge, was the contractor. <\/p>\n
Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion. <\/p>\n
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Prairieville Fire Department opens newest fire station, answering need for the booming Ascension Parish community - The Advocate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PRAIRIEVILLE With a booming population, Fire Protection District 3 better known as the Prairieville Fire Department opened its fifth fire station this summer to meet the demands of the fastest growing area of Ascension Parish. But the area may need another five stations to meet the demand. The $1.4 million station on the corner of Bluff Road and Alligator Bayou Road is the second of two stations built in the area in the last three years, as new business and residential developments seem to break ground weekly in the unincorporated community of Prairieville, in the northern reaches of the parish Continue reading