During a recent Facebook Live interview, Sarasota County Fire Chief Michael Regnier talked with Media Relations Officer Sara Nealeigh about the progress on the new Fire Station 13, which is under construction next to Siesta Public Beach.
“We’re about 90% complete,” Regnier said of the project, which began about 10 months ago.
The crews have been operating out of temporary facilities the county rented in a building just south of the site.
“They can’t wait to get into the fire station,” he said.
If construction stays on schedule, Regnier added, the new building should be ready for occupation in July — around the beginning of summer.
And it will be hurricane-hardened, Regnier and Nealeigh emphasized, which the previous building — constructed in the 1970s — was not.
Crews still will be evacuated in advance of a storm’s potential strike on the county, Regnier explained, but as soon as the county’s Emergency Services leaders give the “All clear” for a return to the island, the crews immediately will be back at the station, ready to serve in whatever capacity is needed.
And speaking of the original structure: “There’s a little piece of history in this station,” Nealeigh said of the new facility.
“We were able to preserve a lot of that brick” from the 1970s structure, Regnier explained. It is being used for exposed brick walls in the new building.
As they conducted the interview, workers were busy in the background. As Regnier put it, “[There are] a lot of things happening right now.”
Author: John Morton
- Tags: Fire Station 13, Michael Regnier