A second fire station is coming to Rio Grande City to service the west side of town.

The city's only fire station is on the east side of town, and fire crews often have to travel across town to reach neighborhoods on the city’s west side.

“When we get a call from over there we have to go through traffic. It’s gonna take us 10 to 15 minutes to get to that side,” RGC Fire Chief Manuel Muñiz said.

Muñiz said over half of the emergency calls his department responded to last year were on the west side of town.

“So it's going to help us a lot by having another station here,” Muñiz said.

The city has budgeted nearly $300,000 for the station that’s expected to be nearly 5,000 square feet.

The next step for city leaders is to open bids for a construction company. 

“Hopefully by the end of February we'll get something to start going on,” Muñiz said.

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