Charlotte County breaks ground on Fire Station 17 funded by 1% local option sales tax

Charlotte County officials marked the groundbreaking for Fire Station 17, a new 13,000-square-foot, four-bay station funded with revenues from the county's 1% local option sales tax approved in 2020, Fire Chief McElroy said at the ceremony.

The station, McElroy said, will house a ladder truck, an engine, a rescue unit and the battalion chief and will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "We'll be right here in your backdoor able to make those, those moments, turn into seconds for you," McElroy said, describing the station's expected effect on response times.

Why it matters: county leaders identified the location during project planning as growth shifted into areas such as Burnt Store, increasing the need to station apparatus closer to new development. McElroy told the crowd the site was among the projects prioritized when the sales-tax package was developed in 2019 and approved in 2020.

The county is using two station models; Station 17 follows the larger-footprint design, McElroy said, and a separate, smaller-footprint station will have a groundbreaking later this week. He said the last new stations added to the county were Station 15 and Station 16, brought online in 2007, and several subsequent projects were remodels rather than new builds.

Esparillo noted the project is part of the broader set of county investments supported by the 1% local option sales tax. "Charlotte County is using that 1% local option sales tax to keep you safe," she said.

Next steps: officials held the ceremonial groundbreaking; McElroy said construction is expected to progress over the coming year with the goal of stationing crews and equipment to shorten response times once the facility opens.