Tampa Fire presents Station 24 design options and master-plan update; union, council press for faster schedule

City fire officials and the contract owner’s project manager on Wednesday gave Tampa City Council a status update on Fire Station 24 design work and a broader progress report on the department’s master plan, while union leaders and several council members pressed for a faster construction schedule.

Fire Chief Barbara Tripp told council the department is working with internal and external partners and continues to cover the station’s service area from Station 13 while Station 24 is being designed. Tripp also said the department will bring regular updates to the council and highlighted department efforts to reduce vacancies and add transport units.

Ken Gayet, senior director with Colliers Project Leaders, which serves as the owner’s project manager, said the project team came on board in March and is in the pre-design phase. Gayet presented two initial site-and-floor-plan options and walked council through a phased schedule the design-build team submitted. He said the contract calls for a 15-month formal design phase and that the team had completed about 17 of 72 tasks on the overall schedule. Gayet added the project team has already trimmed the schedule by “30 plus days” by removing a redundant council approval step and by seeking to compress owner review time and permitting schedules.

Union and council concerns: union leaders and Councilman Viera urged faster delivery. Nick Sacco, president of Tampa Firefighters Local 754, said the union will provide the council with documentation tracing the project’s history and urged the city to finish work sooner. Councilman Viera reviewed documents from 2022 and 2023 showing site selection and early design activity and said he remained disappointed that a groundbreaking now appears to land in late 2026: “September of 2026 appears to be the new mark,” he said.

Master-plan status: Chief Tripp and staff also reviewed the department’s implementation of recommendations from a 2022 Fitch & Associates needs analysis. Tripp said the department has reduced vacancy rates and added transport units and a heavy rescue; she highlighted progress on dispatch and turnout-time improvements and said the department expects to substantially improve performance once a new CAD (computer-aided dispatch) system is in service. Tripp told council the department is on track to have the CAD online in about a year, which she said would help reduce dispatch delay.

Council direction: Councilman Buera asked for a short written report and feasibility discussion about a formal updated public-safety master plan; council approved a motion requesting a written report to return in the summer 2025 budget cycle (deadline and format were set during the meeting). Council members asked staff to continue to seek schedule compression and to coordinate permitting and owner-review steps with the contractor and permitting agencies.

Ending: city staff said they will continue monthly status updates and work to compress the schedule where feasible; the project manager said early enabling work and permitting coordination could shave additional time as the design advances.