The La Quinta City Council broke ground for the city's newest fire station Wednesday, a project officials hope will not only help with fire emergencies but with the fiscal emergency facing the local economy.

The $6.8 million project, which includes Phase I of the city's Corporate Yard, is divided into 13 elements enabling several local contractors to participate through a Multi-Prime Contract method.

This is the first time La Quinta has tried the method, city officials said.

As a result, the city has awarded 65 percent of the work to contractors within the Coachella Valley including Davis Reed Construction Inc., Desert Concepts and Del's Flooring.

“We know the economy and how bad it is in the community, and we wanted, desperately, to be able to provide work for our contractors and our people here in our community,” said Mayor Don Adolph, adding that had they not, the job could have been contracted out to firms in Phoenix, Los Angeles or San Diego.

“This way, by breaking it up the way we did, it gave our local contractors, our local citizens, the opportunity to make money here in the community,” he said.

Of the $5 million awarded in contracts, $3.8 million goes to local firms, said Jesse Frescas Jr. of gkkworks, the Irvine-based construction management firm — which has a satellite office in La Quinta — for the project .

The new 7,200-square-foot station will replace the 60-year-old Fire Station No. 32 facility on Frances Hack Lane and will be equipped with photovoltaic solar panels and other water- and energy-efficient amenities, city officials said.

Located next to Fritz Burns Park at 78-111 Avenue 52, the spot “optimizes response time to the central, core area of La Quinta yet is still not pulled out of the Cove area,” said La Quinta Fire Division Chief Dorian Cooley. This is expected to reduce response times by up to one minute, Cooley added.

“It doesn't sound like a lot, but remember our goal is to have a five-minute response time, so anything we can do to shave off those seconds is critical,” he said. “And ultimately when getting on scene to a fire or a critical medical emergency, seconds count.”

The new station is expected to be constructed in 10 months, city officials said.