Winter Haven discusses community-safety upgrades: new fire station, EV response gear, SCADA fixes, park digital signs and radios

Winter Haven City leaders on May 2025 received a strategic-plan update on community safety that covered a range of operational changes and equipment purchases, from a new fire station that opens May 21 to new communication and water-system redundancy work.

The fire department told the commission the relocation and opening of Fire Station 4 on May 21 will shrink coverage zones for multiple stations and reduce response times “by over 2 minutes” for approximately 3,800 calls in the newly assigned area. “Two minutes might not sound like a lot right now, but when you're in an emergency ... two minutes can literally mean the difference between life and death,” the fire department presenter said.

The presentation also updated commissioners on Fire Station 5, sited near Lake Hartridge Nature Park. The city is at a percent-design stage for Station 5 and is waiting on a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) from the selected builder. The project will include roadway and watershed improvements, boat-trailer parking and walking-path upgrades tied to the park, and a new, permanent station to replace firefighters currently housed in a trailer on a shared property.

Water staff described an April 3 interruption to the city’s SCADA radio communications that briefly prevented automated pump activation during a high-demand period overnight. “We can definitely say this was not a cyber attack,” the water operator said. The loss of automated control caused pressure drops in portions of the system; because pressure fell below the safety threshold used by staff, the city issued a precautionary boil-water notice and then tested 90 sampling sites twice (180 samples total). All 180 samples passed, and staff said the tests showed no degradation in water quality. Staff said they will pursue redundancy by tying SCADA into both radio and dark fiber communications to reduce future risk.

On electric-vehicle fire response, the fire department announced it purchased insulated “EV blankets” to cover battery-involved vehicle fires. The department said blankets cost about $2,000 each, are carried on every engine, and are reusable after inspection unless punctured. The presenter described the blankets as a mitigation tool because lithium-ion battery fires can require “10 to 20 times” the water of a conventional car fire and may burn for hours if not contained.

Parks and information-technology staff described the city’s acquisition of three SUFA digital display boards to be installed at Trailhead Park, Reuben Williams Sports Complex and the walking trail at Chain of Lakes parks. Staff said the solar-powered displays “don’t need electricity to run” and will carry emergency alerts, calendars and social-media feeds; the purchase price cited to the commission was $60,000 for three boards with an annual maintenance/lease cost of about $2,000.

Finally, the city stated it has procured 100 multi-channel radios for staff outside public safety and will assign them to public works, parks, water and special-events teams to provide a non-cellphone communications layer during incidents. Commissioners were told radios will be used daily for routine coordination and can be switched to disaster channels and shared templates for county-level interoperability.

Commissioners asked follow-up questions about timeline, training and costs for each initiative. The presentations were informational; no formal votes or ordinance adoptions tied to these updates were recorded in the portion of the transcript provided.