Money lined up to build ambulance station in East Naples next year

Collier County will build a new ambulance station in East Naples to keep up with the houses and neighborhoods popping up off Collier Boulevard.

The station, which is expected to cost about $2 million, will open on a slice of land set aside for it by the developers of the Hacienda Lakes community near the corner of Collier Boulevard and The Lords Way.

Commissioners haven't formally approved the project, but they set aside the money to pay for it in a tentative budget for the next fiscal year, which will start October 1.

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After the budget is finalized in September, the county's Emergency Medical Services department will give building and site plans to commissioners, with a goal of starting construction in the spring, said Tabatha Butcher, EMS chief.

Construction will take six to eight months, Butcher said.

"So hopefully, we'll be in it by the end of next year or the beginning of 2019," she said.

The station will be large enough to fit a fire engine, should the Greater Naples Fire District decide to join the county at the site.

The county, which has a standard to provide one ambulance per 16,400 people, has known for years that it would need to build a new station on Collier Boulevard.

Commissioners freed up enough money in the tentative budget to buy a new ambulance and hire a full-time staff for the station right away. The crew will be housed at the nearest station, in Naples Manor, until construction is finished, Butcher said.

"That's great because the population shows we're ready for another unit," she said. "That whole East Naples corridor, the Collier Boulevard and (U.S.) 41 area, is growing so rapidly. This will help."

Plan to buy helicopter

The county also has been setting aside $1 million to $2 million a year for each of the last four years to replace its 20-year-old helicopter. With another $1 million being set aside under the tentative budget, Butcher said she thinks the county will be able to buy it this fall.

"We have a specific helicopter that we want, and we know the safety features that we have now and want to keep," she said.