NAVASOTA, Texas (KBTX) – On Monday, the city of Navasota finalized the purchase of land that will serve as the new home for the Navasota Fire Department.
Along Spur 515 behind the Circle T Truck Stop, is the new location for Navasota Fire Department’s fire station. The land may not look like much right now, but the city says this will be an ideal spot for the fire department to serve the growing community.
Jason Weeks, Navasota’s city manager, says the Navasota Fire Department has been in their current fire station for 30 years. He says an upgrade has been on the city’s radar for a while and a larger space was a top priority.
“The current location is not a bad location. Ideally, we’d find a new location that’s not too far from the location that will also serve our growth,” said Weeks. “Four acres is a lot more than what we currently have so we’re gonna have the opportunity to make the station what it really needs to be.”
The new fire station is a much-needed upgrade. Since Highway 249 was constructed, the City of Navasota says they’ve seen exponential growth, increasing the number of residents the fire department serves.
The Navasota Fire Chief, Jason Katkoski, says the fire department used to respond to about 300 calls per year 30 years ago. Now, that number is 2,000 per year.
“With the growth we’re seeing and the future growth we are projecting, and how the city is sprawling, we felt like that was a good location we could get to all of it quicker,” said Katkoski. “We’ve outgrown the current location and station. It was originally built as primarily a volunteer fire department and as we started expanding into more of a career department, the station just wasn’t conducive to house people there on a 24 hour basis.”
Katkoski says it has been fun to watch the growth over the last 30 years.
“Right now, here in the City of Navasota, we have a lot of growth happening, and it’s fun to see all this activity going on, it’s exciting as a resident and as a staff member,” said Katkoski.
As the population grows, more calls come in.
“Our fire department does not only serve our residents of Navasota, but also we go out into the county. We have an agreement with Grimes County to service Grimes County, so right now, if you look at the big picture, we service over 30,000 residents,” said Weeks.
The city manager says they’re expecting the city’s population to double in the next 10 to 15 years.
“We have a lot of growth, we have a lot of new housing coming along on the west side of town and now it’s spurring on the east side of town,” said Weeks.
Weeks says building this new station is the first step in the right direction because it will equip the fire department to better serve the community.
“We’re just excited for the fire department, our fire department needed a new home location,” said Weeks.
The city says the next step is to finalize the design for the new station. They’re expecting that to take around six months to a year. After the design is finalized, the city will look over what construction will look like.
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