On a humid Saturday morning, September 10th, Clovis added its most recent public safety building, a new fire station.
The station, Clovis Fire Station 6, located just South of Shaw and Leonard streets in Clovis, opened near the Loma Vista community, and much was said about how this new station affects the livelihoods of this part of the Clovis Community.
“We believe in public safety. We believe as a community we can come together and build something for the future, something for ourselves, something to protect our children and our elderly, all of us. What better place to build it than in our newer community…We overcome our challenges because we work together, and that’s what this building’s all about.”
This was a quote from Mayor Jose Flores’ address to the public who gathered inside the fire station to watch the ribbon cutting and official opening of the building. The station has been in full service for a number of weeks by now.
Clovis Fire Chief John Binaski also addressed the public with some statistics about the new station.
“The station is approximately 8900 square feet and will serve a population of 25,000 citizens and approximately five square miles of the city.”
He then mentioned that it cost around $8 million and was paid for mainly through developer impact fees as the City of Clovis grew in size.
Binaski, Fire Chief of Clovis since 2016, also mentioned the surrounding Loma Vista community and the Village Green park that he anticipates will begin to be worked on as soon as the week of September 11th-17th. He then went on to mention other features that have been added to the Loma Vista community including the El Mercado commercial development.
Before Binaski left the podium, he thanked a number of people, including retired city employee and former Director of Planning and Development Services, Dwight Kroll.
Kroll, original architect of Clovis Fire Station 6, recognized that the vision being realized was an opportunity to see “community character evolve.”
He mentioned that the community had a prospective dream of what the Loma Vista community could look like “a hundred years from now”.
“I think this fire station and Village Green are symptomatic of that dream and it’s starting to come true.”
The note was made several times that Kroll initiated the original plans for the station on a napkin, to which when questioned about, he chuckled and simply replied, “Yes…We knew that we needed a fire station from Loma Vista, and I think that what we learned from the fire station in downtown Clovis was that it is a civic building and it really has a civic function to it, even beyond providing safety services.”
Like Kroll, Councilman Drew Bessinger also mentioned that having the Fire Station not only provides safety services, but also stands as an example of a center for a community like Loma Vista to gather around.
“We’re looking at what Clovis needs in twenty years, and having these things ready to go puts us in a position where we’re gonna be able to keep the community safe….It’s a good thing for Clovis, it’s a good thing for Eastern Fresno County.”
According to the City of Clovis’ website, Fire Station 6 is expected to house one fire engine, one reserve fire engine, and a staff of nine firefighters. Serving mainly the Loma Vista Community, Fire Station 6 is the newest public safety vessel to come to the City of Clovis.