West Fargo Commission approves land purchase for fire department headquarters

The West Fargo City Commission approved a $967,000 land purchase at today's commission meeting that will allow the West Fargo Fire Department to build a new headquarters to better keep up with the safety demands of the rapidly growing community.

Based on the West Fargo Fire Department’s long-term facility and strategic plans, the land located at 1201 10th Avenue East. will become the site of the new West Fargo Fire Department headquarters. The total project estimate is $10 million and will use sales tax earmarked for capital improvements to fund the project. The fire department will also pursue federal grants to help with funding.

“This new site will allow us to combine our office personnel, improve our ISO rating to reduce property insurance costs for residents and businesses and decrease our response times,” said West Fargo Fire Department Chief Fuller. “This project will directly benefit the citizens of West Fargo by providing facilities that best serve the needs of the community.”

Currently, West Fargo has a three rating from the Insurance Service Office (ISO), which reviews fire departments against industry standards to determine property insurance costs. This rating represents an average nine-minute response time. The fire department studied the report and determined that the response times north of Interstate-94 were longer due to the lack of full-time employees available north of I-94. To solve this issue, the West Fargo Fire Department began working on plans for a new building that will provide space for full-time employees.

After review, the available property with the best response time projection was identified as the 1201 10th Avenue East site, which sits just north of Menards and Family Fare. This site will provide a response time of about five minutes to properties north of I-94, which includes the core area of West Fargo, schools, municipal buildings and major industrial and commercial developments. The improvement will help the department achieve the top ISO rating of one. This will enhance the City of West Fargo’s safety and reduce property insurance rates for businesses and residents.

Construction on the new station will begin in the spring of 2021, with hopes of finishing in late summer of 2022. With the land purchase approval, the fire department will begin work on the building design and construction plans for review at a future City Commission meeting.