Plans are in the works for the construction of two new fire stations in a mostly rural county in southern New Mexico.
Members of the Eddy County Board of County Commissioners have voted in favor of a $158 million interim budget for fiscal year 2023 that includes funding for the building of the facilities.
The stations will likely go up on the northern and southern side of the county, thus, according to county manager Allen Davis, providing fire and emergency medical services in both sections.
County documents show that a replacement for the Atoka Fire Station, currently located at 26 E. Atoka Road in Artesia, would be staffed 24 hours a day, and built to “allow housing at the station.”
The Eddy County Fire & Rescue office is made up of a dozen strategically placed volunteer fire units. Late last year members of the county commission approved applying excise tax revenue to the building of a new substation for the Happy Valley Volunteers Fire Department.
That station is designed to serve the McNew Subdivision on the north side of the city of Carlsbad.
Other excise tax revenue, to the tune of $1.5 million, is targeting the construction of a building designed to replace the existing Joel Volunteer Fire Department station in White’s City in southern Eddy County.
In contemplating the construction of new stations, commission members also voted to approve $5 million for the creation of a full-time fire department that would serve the entire county. That vote additionally authorizes the hiring of nearly two dozen new employees for the Eddy County Fire and Rescue office.
For years the county has largely depended upon the services of the fire departments belonging to the cities of Artesia and Carlsbad.
By Garry Boulard
