IOWA PARK (KFDX/KJTL) — It’s a new beginning for the Iowa Park fire and police departments.

“This is an exciting day for the city of Iowa Park,” Iowa Park City Manager Jerry Flemming said.

Iowa Park City Council broke ground on new facilities for first responders. Upgrades that fire chief Andy Payne and police chief Steven Daivs said are long overdue.

“It’s been a long time coming. We’ve outgrown our station over at 104 East Highway, can’t get equipment in there anymore so I’m extremely excited to have something start of the art,” Payne said.

“We’re working out of a building, built somewhat undersized in 1975, there’s been some additions to it. We’re bulging at the seams in our old building and this is really going to be a nice asset for the city,” Davis said.

In 2019, city council appointed a Public Safety Facilities Committee, and in 2021, recommended the need for new facilities. From there, the work on new buildings started way before the groundbreaking.

“The community has always been behind the fire department and police department, so when we got these committees together we got a lot of volunteers that wanted to come out and help, and figure out what would best fit our community to be able to handle our police department and fire department. So it was great,” Iowa Park Mayor Ray Schultz said.

Both projects are set to be completed in about 14 months.

Flemming knows the city is excited and can’t wait to host the ribbon cuttings.

“I think they’re also impatient, we all are to a certain extent because we’d like to see it now. We do have some nice pictures to look at but we’re not going to see the actual buildings for several months but in the meantime, we’re going to see progress,” Flemming said.

Be sure to stick with KFDX as we bring you coverage of the ribbon cutting when the facilities open!