Calexico’s Fire Station No. 2 Officially Open for Business – Calexico Chronicle

CALEXICO — A long, hard and often hard-fought journey to rebuild Calexico’s Fire Station No. 2 came to an official end with a small grand-opening ceremony on Friday morning, Dec. 6, attended by city staff, including numerous fire personnel, and several members of the public.

Originally a $966,000 rehabilitation project when bid back in March, Fire Station No. 2’s costs ballooned to $1.57 million and some 16 change orders were submitted to the City Council. Through the process, the city came under intense scrutiny from the public over perceptions of mishandled funds.

Calexico Mayor Camilo Garcia addressed some of the tumult in the process in his wide-ranging speech at Friday’s ceremony underneath the bay doors of 900 W. Grant St.

“This is not about politics, this is about the community. This is not about who’s sitting on the council, this is about all of you, right? This is about what all of us can do together, right? Because the five council members are not going to do everything for you. You also have to take part of this. And this is an example of how this came about, because all of you took part of this from the time that you came up and said, ‘You know what? We need this back again.’ And you always put the pressure on,” Garcia said.

Garcia was referring to both the public pressure that initiated the project to give fire crews safe, inhabitable living conditions and to restore emergency response access to the west side of the city, but he also referred to the passion in the community that arose during construction.

In the end, the project allowed the city to help restore confidence in making the west side safer and increasing emergency response and to pay tribute to the city’s first responders as well.

“All of the firefighters that are here, thank you for the mutual aid. I know you have your agreements, I know you have your brotherhood, but from the bottom of our hearts as a citizen of Calexico that I represent, I thank you,” Garcia said. “I thank you for you being here today, looking forward for many more years of collaboration, looking forward to coming back five years from now and seeing this facility in this shape, or even better, thank you …”

Garcia thanked all of the city staff, giving specific flowers to Public Works Manager Liliana Falomir for overseeing the project, Fire Inspector Fernando Villa for guiding aspects of the build, The Holt Group officials for design and guidance and construction company A&N Quality Builders.

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He also thanked former City Manager Esperanza Colio, who was terminated by the city midway through the project. But it was Colio who is acknowledged as being the person who shepherded the project in its infancy, including obtaining and unlocking frozen state Community Development Block Grant funding.

Colio was invited to say a few words.

“In 2022, upon my arrival to the city of Calexico, I noticed the deteriorated and unhealthy conditions of Fire Station No. 2. In coordination with (former) Chief (Diego) Favila, and with the support of the entire City Council, the firefighters were removed from the station to avoid additional exposure to mold. The project was possible with COVID funding from the Housing and Community Development and the former redevelopment agency. I would like to thank everybody that was involved in this project which provides services to the community of Calexico,” Colio said in a written statement.