Hillsborough Acquires Land For Fire Station Expansion in Egypt Lake

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners voted on Wednesday to approve the purchase of a parcel of land for the construction of a fire station to replace the Armdale Fire Station, located in the Egypt Lake area of the county.

Armdale Fire Station 10 is being replaced with funds from the American Rescue Plan approved by the BOCC earlier this year. The station is more than 50 years old and has reached the end of its operational life.

The property being purchased is adjacent to the existing fire station property. It is needed to expand the station and build a driveway that will allow apparatus to drive through the fire station bay instead of the existing back-in-style bays.

The purchase is for .69 acres, which creates a new fire station property of 2.87 acres at 8430 N. Grady Ave., Tampa.

The new Armdale Fire Station No. 10 will be a single-story, three-bay station.

Modern station designs provide health protections for first responders, while improving response times to calls for fire rescue services. Design improvements include decontamination suites that contain specialized equipment and showers and allow first responders to clean themselves and their equipment of cancer-causing particulate matter before entering the living areas of the station.

Modern dispatch-alerting technology improves response with the use of digital data displays, countdown timers and mobile applications in the responding fire vehicles.

The purchase price for the land is $385,000.

The Hillsborough County American Rescue Plan Investment Plan, approved by the commission on Sept. 1, provides a framework for investing the $285 million in federal state and local coronavirus recovery funds in the community. The fire station replacement is one of the programs funded under this plan by the BOCC.

Projects include water, sewer and broadband infrastructure; public health response; negative economic impacts; and revenue replacement for certain government services. Projects funded by Hillsborough County must meet the guidelines established by the federal government while addressing the County's unique community needs and reflecting the BOCC's collective values in addressing residents' needs.