The Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday approved 555 Stoneridge Drive for the location of the next fire station, and Douglas County commissioners could follow suit on Wednesday.
The location — near the water tower at Sixth Street and Stoneridge Drive — will help Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical first responders reach people faster on the northwestern side of town and in the surrounding rural areas.
The estimated cost to construct the station is $12.96 million, which would be split with the city paying approximately $8.3 million and the county paying about $4.7 million.
The cost of the station was included in the commission’s capital improvement plan, but the city doesn’t know yet how it will pay to operate the station.
Earlier in the evening, commissioners approved a 2026 budget that takes one fire engine offline. Mayor Mike Dever said the city would have to increase the property tax rate again in the future in order to pay for the station and the ongoing costs of public safety in the community.
Mayor Mike Dever, Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei and Commissioners Bart Littlejohn, Amber Sellers and Lisa Larsen voted unanimously to approve the location.
The Douglas County Commission will consider the location next. The commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the historic courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. The fire station presentation is the last item on their agenda.
See the county commission’s complete meeting agenda at this link. People may attend the meeting virtually and provide public comment via Zoom; that link can be found on this page.
The proposed station would be almost 13,000 square feet and have space for 10 private bunks, four gender-neutral restrooms with showers, a training room, kitchen and dining room and more.
If approved, the station’s design would be completed in 2026 and construction would begin in 2027, according to the meeting agendas.
As part of their consent agenda — a list of items that are generally considered routine and approved with one motion unless a commissioner asks to discuss a particular item — commissioners approved setting a public hearing for their Tuesday, Oct. 21 meeting to hear issues at impasse between the city and the firefighters union, Lawrence Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 1596.
The parties have been in discussion since April, but the city and the union have not been able to agree on 2026 and 2027 wages for the bargaining group that includes firefighters, fire engineers, fire lieutenants and mobile integrated health technicians, according to the agenda item.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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