City of Amarillo to negotiate with Amarillo College to buy land for fire station

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The Amarillo College Board of Regents met today and approved for the negotiation with the city of Amarillo to buy a piece of land on their West campus.

“What our regents agreed to today was to empower our vice president of business affairs to negotiate a deal that would allow the city to build a fire station on our West campus,” says President of AC, Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart.

The piece of land being discussed is about 1.4 acres and it sits at the Northeast corner of Southwest 9th Avenue and Quail Creek Drive.

The need came from wanting to expand the city’s blanket of coverage.

“Yeah the city approached us several months ago with the need to have a fire station in that part of town, there’s a real void of fire coverage in that area,” said Vice President of Business Affairs for AC, Chris Sharp.

The location is ideal for the expansion the city is looking to make for their fire fighting services.

“This lot on our campus really meets that need for having coverage in close vicinity to where they needed the coverage to happen,” says Sharp.

Amarillo College says it’s proud to have a role in the important project.

“Our partnership with the City of Amarillo is robust, not just in issues of fire stations and fire academies, but in identifying ways that we can work together to improve our community, there may not be a closer partnership the college has,” says Dr. Lowery-hart.

Continuously finding ways to work together to provide the best for Panhandle residents.

Negotiations for the land will begin as soon as possible, with meetings planned over the next several weeks.

“Whether that’s a sale or us leasing on a long term lease with them, so we’ll just negotiate and come up the best scenario for both of us,” said Sharp.

We will continue to update you on the status of the agreement.

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