Cookeville Fire Planning Fifth District, Increasing Coverage Area

The Cookeville Fire Department (CFD) looks to begin the process of creating a fifth station covering the city’s west side.

Captain Daniel Snyder said Friday the expansion would greatly benefit more of Cookeville’s residents.

“What we’re looking at is to provide better coverage citywide,” Snyder said. “We have annexed west Cookeville [and] there’s a gap in coverage down there. We proposed looking into the future to building a fire station to provide adequate coverage in that area of the city.”

Snyder and Cookeville city officials discussed the idea during two budget work sessions Thursday and Friday.

The proposal would also include shifting the city’s central and southernmost districts to cover a larger area. Snyder noted that doing so would require purchasing land and constructing new stations in those districts.

City Finance Director Brenda Imel said Thursday the department has already begun prep work in creating the fifth district.

“How we staff that is a question,” Imel said, “so we’re going to start bringing some of that staff on now so that when we’ve got that fifth station, we’ve got the personnel we can move into that station instead of hiring… 12 to 15 people all at one time.”

CFD’s proposed spending plan includes hiring three new firefighters during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

City Manager Mike Davidson said the money for the new positions had previously been budgeted for an education officer.

“[We’ve] talked with Captain Snyder and the Chief [Daryl Blair] about… if we don’t have the education officer, can the shifts do that throughout the day?” Davidson asked. “Can they go meet at the schools, can they go to the assisted living facilities and do that piece of the education portion of what the department does and let the shifts handle that.”

Davidson noted that the new westside district and any shifting of the existing districts likely wouldn’t take place for another six to eight years.