Prescott City reports progress on new fire stations, police hiring and cell coverage in strategic-plan update

At a Prescott City Council study session on Oct. 14, 2025, City Manager Dallin Kimball said staff is tracking progress on the council'adopted strategic plan and delivered a midyear update focused first on public safety.

The report centered on fire and police staffing, response-time improvements and cellular coverage. "The strategic plan itself calls for an update to the mayor and council every 6 months," Kimball said. He asked department leaders to present recent operational changes and near-term actions.

Holger Dura, Prescott Fire Chief, told the council the city has settled on sites for two new, strategically located stations that should improve coverage. He said the council will see contracts next week for design, land purchase and construction of a training tower. "We were able to place a 40 hour additional engine company in service starting on August 18," Dura said, identifying the unit as engine 76 and noting it is temporarily quartered at the training center on Sundog Ranch. Dura said the weekday coverage is intended to address the city's peak call volume "when our call volume is the highest in the city."

Dura described equipment and software measures intended to reduce total response times in addition to the new capital projects. Staff is working with PRCC to improve triage and to modernize computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and station-alerting systems; the chief said a new alerting system should remove a sequential-toning delay and save roughly 15'20 seconds in total response time for larger emergencies.

Kimball and Dura also described planned relocations: the airport fire responsibilities will remain, with an FAA-funded ARF and operations facility planned, while an engine-company component is slated to move to a parcel at State Route 89 and Prescott Lakes Parkway. A second station, identified as Station 73, is planned near 89 and the Fippin Trail roundabout; staff said coverage maps show marked improvement where the new sites are placed.

Police Chief Bonnie (presented as "Chief Bonnie") reported hiring progress tied to Proposition 478 (as referenced in the presentation). She said three officers recently completed field training, two academy graduates have finished field training, one lateral officer finished field training, and another lateral hire from Scottsdale will start soon. "We are indeed, moving that needle," Chief Bonnie said, describing increased downtown community policing, expanded bike patrols and targeted enforcement details this year.

Chief Bonnie said 14 new officer positions added through Prop 478 brought authorized sworn positions to 99, but that fully filling those slots will take time. "Do I believe we're gonna be at that position filled by the end of this fiscal year? No," she said, estimating it could take until about 2027 to staff all positions because hiring and training timelines for officers typically run about a year.

Council members asked for trend data and accessibility for the public. Kimball and Deputy City Manager Mike Morris said staff is moving performance measures and level-of-service metrics into OpenGov dashboards, with department dashboards expected to be live in January and strategic-plan measures to follow. The city manager said staff aims to connect performance data to budget decisions so council members and the public can see how dollars affect outcomes.

Kimball also highlighted cellular coverage inside the Prescott city limits, saying the most recent FCC map shows roughly 95'98% coverage; he noted remaining gaps in a few neighborhoods and that the county has larger deficiencies. He said staff recently processed a Verizon application to upgrade a tower near Costco that could improve service for nearby areas.

The city will return to council with design and contract documents for the stations and training tower and said it will monitor response-time impacts after the new engine company has operated for a test interval.