La Crosse fire chief pushing for new, fifth fire station

Cost would be around $5-6 million

La Crosse’s fire chief continues to make his case for a fifth fire station.

Chief Gregg Cleveland, stopping in the WIZM studio Tuesday, argued that his goal is to get the city up to industry standards on response times to all parts of the area.

A new fire station would cost from $5-6 million but the department would also add staff and vehicles. Currently budgeted for next year is a $500,000 to buy property and plan a new station.

“The longer you delay those, obviously the bigger fires will get prior to the fire dept. arriving,” Cleveland said. “And that’s where overtimes comes in to call back additional staff. And that’s why we have the staffing that we do, because it helps saves lives and helps save property.”

Cleveland says a fifth fire station would improve response times for 17 percent of the department’s calls. About 70 percent of the department’s calls are for medical emergencies.

“Fire and medical emergencies are a function of time,” Cleveland said. “We can’t stack up medical calls and say, ‘You’re third on the list,’ and we’ll worry about you 20 minutes from now.”

The city has had four stations since a 1967 when a consolidation got rid of a fifth.