Rio Rancho approves $12.7 million Fire Station 8 project

Rio Rancho cleared the last major hurdle for Fire Station 8, awarding Enterprise Builders Corp. a $12.7 million contract for a southside station city leaders say will strengthen coverage, shorten response times and ease pressure on nearby crews as the city keeps growing.

The Governing Body’s approval capped a project that has been in motion since 2020 and moved it from planning into construction. The new station is planned for the corner of Cabezon Blvd. and Veranda Road on a 1.44-acre site south of Maggie Cordova Elementary School. Rio Rancho Fire & Rescue Chief James Wenzel said groundbreaking is scheduled for May 4 at 11:30 a.m., and Mayor Gregg Hull added a light moment at the meeting by joking about a Star Wars theme for the ceremony. Wenzel matched the upbeat tone, while also stressing how much the department, council and local legislators had invested in reaching this point.

City planning documents say the site was chosen using heat mapping and several years of emergency call data, a sign that Rio Rancho is placing public safety infrastructure where call volume has been building. The station is designed to be 15,461 square feet, with 10 bunk rooms, four apparatus bays, two officer suites and a community gathering space that could support public meetings and voting. Officials say it will house 15 firefighter/EMTs, one fire truck and one ambulance.

The project is as much about growth management as it is about construction. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Rio Rancho’s population at 112,524 in 2024, an 8.1% increase from the 2020 base of 104,047. In Rio Rancho Fire & Rescue’s 2024 annual report, the department said Fire Station 8 design was completed as part of a long-term strategic plan to expand coverage and support continued growth in the city. That makes the new station a response to the pace of development in southern Rio Rancho, where more homes, roads and service demand have pushed emergency coverage farther outward.

The city lists design costs at $748,000 and construction costs at $13,666,323.97. Funding comes from city revenue bond and general fund money, plus 2024 and 2025 state capital outlay appropriations, including $2 million from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, $1.7 million from Sen. Craig Brandt, $1,347,320 from Rep. Joshua Hernandez, $500,000 from Sen. Jay Block and $487,000 from New Mexico House and Senate capital. For taxpayers, the result is a station built to keep pace with a fast-growing city and give first responders another base where seconds matter.