Planners approve rural fire station on Cripps Road

GENTRY -- Benton County planners, on Jan. 18, unanimously approved plans for a new rural fire station west of Gentry.

Fire Chief Vester Cripps presented plans for the rural fire station for the Gentry Fire Department to the planners. He said the new station is planned for 23115 Cripps Road near Gentry. He said the 2,000-square-foot, 40-foot by 50-foot building would house three fire trucks -- one brush truck, one pumper truck and one tender truck.

Cripps said the new station will benefit residents whose homes are in an area now considered "unprotected" by the Insurance Service Office, which provides ratings for fire insurance. With the new station, the ISO rating for those residences will drop, reducing insurance costs, Cripps said.

This would be the second rural fire station for Gentry's department, which has a full-time chief, one part-time employee and 24 volunteers to cover about 55 square miles, according to Cripps. The department has its main station across from the city park in Gentry and a substation at the corner of Marion Lee and Taylor Orchard Roads inside the city. The other rural station is just east of Cherokee City.