wo new fire station facilities are expected to open in 2012, and plans are also progressing for a public safety operations and training facility scheduled to open in the spring or summer of 2014.

The Georgetown City Council chose Chasco Contracting and KA Hickman Architects as the design build team Jan. 10 for Fire Station No. 2. The city will build the station next to the existing Fire Station No. 2 off of Williams Drive at 204 W. Central Drive.

"We will live in the old station while the new station is built, and then we will move over to the new station and tear down the old one," Georgetown Fire Chief Robert Fite said.

Fire Station No. 2 serves central Georgetown. Originally built in 1974 to house volunteers and their families, the station is about 1,600 square feet in size. Fite said the new station will cost about $1.5 million and probably be 7,000 to 8,000 square feet in size.

The city began clearing the site where Fire Station No. 5 will be located at 3600 D.B. Wood Road in December. Because of its proximity to Lake Georgetown, the station will be the fire department's water response station and will house the dive team. Fite said the city will also build a training tower on the property.

The estimated cost for the station is $4.1 million. Fite said Fire Station No. 5 will serve the west and northwest portion of Georgetown and is slated to be finished in July.

"It's so important for the whole northwest part of town, because we don't really have a fire station in that area," he said. "Our Sun City fire station has to leave constantly to go to calls in that northwest part of town."

Adjacent to the new fire station on D.B. Wood Road, the city is moving forward with plans to open a public safety operations and training facility by spring 2014.

After some deliberation, the City Council voted 6–1 on Nov. 22 for a construction cost option that would build the 70,000-square-foot facility as approved by voters in May 2011.

The building proposed as a part of the May bond election would house the administration offices for the fire and police departments. Emergency response and dispatch personnel would also use the facilities, creating a 24-hour emergency communication center.

Fite said the city has received 23 proposals from architect firms, and City Council is likely to choose a firm by February.