MADISON, Ala. — Mayor Paul Finley of the City of Madison shares that one big focus for the city has been its commitment to public safety. "Quality of life starts with your safety and your health," Finley shares. " Our city council has been focused on making sure that while we were growing in and around the baseball stadium, the livability that's over there, public safety is critical."
The Madison City Council approved to turn a purchased building in the Town Madison area into a new fire station and police substation. "The building itself will house a fire station for two bays, the livability for our fire team," Finley shares. " But we also will have a police substation where investigations, bicycle division and a lot of training aspects for the police department can move and eventually we can grow into as our city continues to grow."
The addition of this building will also help the growing public safety teams. "As we've grown as a city, our police department is just bulging at the seams in the current areas that we have here in city hall," Finley explains. "So, this will give us the ability to spread them out more efficient and more effective. The second part is the fire station. We have a fire station for right now, but it's kind of a temporary station and not in the perfect spot. that in turn helps us with getting to everyone in Town Madison."
With the city council, placing the station in Town Madison will also give homeowners in that area an added benefit. "So, they basically supported our fire station and our fire team, who said this is critical to making sure we keep insurance rates at the lowest possible rate that we can," Finley shares.
AAA spokesperson Clay Ingram shares why this is a big deal. "Most people don't realize that if you live fairly close to a fire station, and a lot of people do and really don't realize it, then that has an impact on what your homeowner's insurance rate," Ingram shares. "Every insurance company has sort of their own way of calculating that, but in general terms, for the most part, if you live within five miles of a fire station, that's going to be a big plus on bringing your insurance rate down."
The owners won’t have to wait long for completion. "So, this is going to give us a more efficient, more effective ability to manage the growing area that is the south portion of the Town Madison area," Finley shares. "It'll take about 18 months to complete, but in the end, we'll have a complete public safety facility over in Town Madison.