PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — After a years-long construction delay that frustrated some members of the public, the Pasco County fire station on Seven Springs Boulevard is now open.
Kay Finkelstein can hardly believe it.
“It would have been nicer if it was sooner, but hey, we’re great to have them here now," she said.
According to Pasco County Fire Rescue, the new Station 17, which serves thousands of people in the quickly-growing Seven Springs community, features an innovative design that will keep both the community and firefighters safe.
The previous station at the same location closed in 2021 to allow the county to construct the new station. Firefighters were temporarily relocated a few miles away.
Neighbors anticipated a brief but necessary inconvenience, but then, things got complicated and very delayed.
“We’ve gotten a lot of calls, what’s going on with Station 17,” said Pasco County Commissioner Katherine Starkey.
As ABC Action News first reported in June 2023, work on the new fire station stopped after the contractor doing the work — Orlando-based R L Burns — became mired in dire financial straits for months, wasn’t paying subcontractors hired to build the station, got sued by its performance bonding company, and then filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
Construction suddenly stopped, and neighbors like Mike Traverso couldn’t believe it as the partially-complete fire station sat vacant and overgrown with weeds in some areas.
“It’s mind-boggling,” Traverso said in a Dec. 2023 interview.
It was an eyesore and for some taxpayers, an example of government ineptitude.
Starkey said they’ve had situations like this happen before with road projects.
“We try and pick companies we’ve worked with and think are going to do a good job, but we have to go with the lowest bidder. It’s kind of some state rules. Sometimes having to go with the lowest bidder comes back to bite you,” Starkey said.
Pasco Fire Rescue has had to keep crews at nearby stations since the old station closed.
A new contractor finally resumed construction in 2024, and roughly a year later, the new station is finished and open.
According to Pasco County Fire Rescue, there’s reason to celebrate.
“The response times will be a little bit quicker than they were during the build process. That’s unfortunately some of the headache that we had to work through but like I said we are glad it’s over. We are glad to be back,” said Fire Chief Ryan Guynn.
Better response time could also help with insurance rates for those who live in this neighborhood.
“Everyone in a five-mile radius can call their insurance company and see if they can get their homeowners insurance lowered,” said Starkey.
The new Station 17 is designed to reduce the cancer risk firefighters face.
“This groundbreaking design allows firefighters to decontaminate and clean carcinogens off their bodies before entering the living quarters, setting a new standard for best practices in the fire industry,” a department spokesperson wrote in an email to ABC Action News.
“There’s a lot of technologies, there’s a lot of geographical configurations within this building that are going to go a long way to protecting our firefighters,” said Guynn.
Additionally, the bigger size of the new Station 17 will allow firefighters there to use better equipment.
“It’s great,” said Finkelstein. “If you need to call ‘em on 911, they’re like here before you can either get off the phone.”
The station also boasts a large flex space that can house even more firefighters during a major emergency.
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