Excerpts from wrex.com:
Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten says that response times have been an issue for Station 7 on the city’s south side for years. It’s why the station is moving north, from the airport into the fire maintenance facility on sawyer road.
“The amount of calls in that area has been increasing, so us not meeting those service demands has definitely had an impact on patients and on fire and EMS calls,” said Bergsten.
According to the 2016 Standards of Cover Report, Station 7 had the worst emergency response performance out of all the city’s stations, taking more than eight minutes to respond to 18% of its EMS calls. That’s twice as long as the benchmark standard of four minutes.
The project’s been in the works for almost ten years, but finally moved forward when MercyHealth announced its new campus on Rockford’s east side. It’s a collaboration the chief says will benefit the community in more ways than one.
“To build a brand new station and fully staff it, the city did not have those funds. So, this was an agreement that was met with the city and mercy to take those funds for permit fees to recommission the station,” said Chief Bergsten.
Chief Bergsten says they expect to move into the new station by August 1.
