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When residents such as Lois Holmes of Mitchellville were concerned about the use of loudspeakers outside a planned fire station blocks away, she said Prince George's County fire officials not only listened, they adjusted.

"We were able to convince them not to do that," Holmes said.

The compromise is an example of the ongoing collaboration between residents and Prince George's County Fire/EMS department officials during the past year in the planning and Tuesday's opening of the St. Joseph Community Fire/EMS Station 806.

Construction began in March 2009 on the 16,000-square-foot, $5.3 million station that had been in the county's pipeline as early as 1982, County Fire Chief Eugene Jones said.

Holmes was among 15 people representing residents and fire department officials who met in a community advisory panel to discuss how the station would fit in with the neighborhood. There was also a project advisory committee of residents, fire officials and Charles H. Flowers High School staff to add input on an outside mural commissioned through Art in Public Places, a county program that organizes art displays for county development projects such as a mosaic outside Bowie's Northview Fire Station.

"We wanted to be a good neighbor and we knew we were going to be smack dab in the middle of the community," said Richard Lambdin, a county fire major for research, planning and development.

The station, which is in proximity to Routes 202, 704 and 50, is expected to get 5,000 calls a year and will serve areas such as Glenarden, Kettering, Landover, Lanham, Largo and Woodmore. County Fire/EMS spokesman Mark Brady said the building of the station coincides with residential growth and development, such as the Bellehaven Plaza Shopping Center that is still in the works to be adjacent to the station on St. Josephs Drive.

"Its location is unique in the fact it can go a lot of different directions," Brady said.

There will be 20 career personnel rotating on four shifts, meaning five people on call per shift for 24 hours, Brady said. The station is planned to house specialty equipment for high angle rescue — Jones cited an example of rescuing people from an amusement park ride — trench rescue and eventually hazmat operations. A training tower is in the station's rear for fire simulations, Brady said.

The career staff will come from the Tuxedo Cheverly Fire Station six miles away, which Jones said responds to 1,000 calls for service annually. Jones said the staff transferred to the St. Joseph Station to relieve the more than 10,000 calls for service that the Kentland 33 and Kentland 46 fire stations handle. They are three and a half miles and three miles away from the St. Joseph station, respectively.

Jones anticipates 100 new county firefighters to complete training in early 2011 and for the Tuxedo Cheverly Station to receive new staffing for a possible medic and ambulance unit in May 2011. The Cheverly area would receive fire services from the Bladensburg, Kentland 33, Landover Hills and Chapel Oaks fire departments with minimal change in response time, Brady said.

Planning for the station ran concurrently with planning for a station mural.

Lauren Glover, executive director of the Art in Public Places Program, said a seven-member panel appointed by the County Council and County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), worked together with a project advisory committee of county fire department officials, Charles H. Flowers High School staff and residents to select a finalist from 15 applicants: Michael Kirby of Baltimore.

Kirby, who was returning from an overseas trip at the time of Tuesday's unveiling, painted the mural, "Paradise" which features portraits of civil rights leader Frederick Douglass, Tuskegee Airman Charles H. Flowers, the namesake of the Springdale high school, N. Louise Young, the first black woman in Maryland to become a licensed physician, and Baltimore-based artist Tom Miller as painted statues.

"There's a lot of emphasis on showcasing history makers and people who would have been an influence," Glover said.

The paintings of historical figures alternate with images of Prince George's County as farmland, an expansion of the community with new homes being built and an image of a Blue Line Metrorail car with the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument in the background.

"This particular artist captured the community's feel," Holmes said. "It represents us well."

Holmes was also on the community advisory panel with Springdale resident Damon Fikes said his concerns are with the vehicle flow that will come with the Woodmore Towne Centre at Glenarden project, a 245-acre mixed-use retail development opening this fall, which calls for a road connection via St. Josephs Drive.

"They have the roadbed right there to lay down asphalt," Fikes said, referring to the road that connects the station to the Woodmore Towne Centre. "Once you put down that, it's going to increase traffic."

Fikes said he would like to see an overhead sign to alert motorists coming down St. Josephs Drive that a car is coming or a traffic signal at the intersection of Ardwick-Ardmore Road and St. Josephs Drive. He said he was impressed with Lambdin following up with resident concerns throughout the entire process.

"I think it's a very nice fire station," Fikes said. "It's definitely needed."

nmcgill@gazette.net