Four new fire stations are on the way to rapidly growing St. Johns County.

The County Commission approved a plan Tuesday for the new stations and several other buildings for use by first responders. 

The four stations are part of a nearly $50 million plan to beef up St. Johns County’s public safety infrastructure. The county also plans to build a new medical examiner’s office, a new headquarters for the Sheriff’s Office and a regional fire training facility. 

All of those projects come with staffing costs in addition to construction costs. County staff estimate that the new fire stations will require more than 100 new firefighters by 2030 when all of the stations are expected to be operating.

Each fire station is expected to include an advanced life support engine as well as a substation for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. 

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The locations of the proposed fire stations include the Flagler Estates region, the Beachwalk/Twin Creeks region and the Long Leaf Pine/Roberts Road region. 

Thousands of residents near new stations could see lower property insurance rates, county staff said.

A place to train

The new fire training facility is particularly important, Fire Chief Sean McGee told county commissioners, because there is currently no dedicated site to train new firefighters. 

The county is considering two locations for the facility, and one comes at a much higher cost.

The training facility could go at a county-owned property near State Road 16 and South Francis Road, but the county is in talks with First Coast Technical College about using the school’s driving track property instead. If the county can convince First Coast Technical College, the cost to build the facility is expected fall by millions of dollars. 

As for the new medical examiner’s facility, the county is expected to receive $11.7 million in legislative appropriations toward the project if Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t veto it from the state budget. 

Operational costs for the facility will be shared by neighboring Flagler and Putnam counties which will also share the facility. 

The county already has a medical examiner’s office, with staff shared, but the existing office is situated in a flood zone. 

Funding for the at-least $44 million in construction will come from borrowed funds and impact fees.