It may take a little longer than expected for Lathrop Manteca Fire Station 31 – the J Street location in Historic Lathrop – to be up and running.

And there really isn’t much that the district – or the contractor performing the remodel of what for years served as the fire station in the heart of the city – can do to speed things up.

Thanks to supply chain issues and problems sourcing much-needed parts and equipment to finalize the job, the initial Aug. 18 completion target date has been moved back more than two months while Diede Construction – the contractor for the job – awaits delivery of items that are being held up.

According to Lathrop Manteca Division Chief Larry Madoski, the holdup is affecting some items that are critical to the operations at the station and will force the completion to be pushed back while they are awaiting shipment.

“One example of the material supply issues we are facing was with our emergency generator – we received a letter from the manufacturer stating that the generator will be delayed until the later part of October,” Madoski said. “We believe that Diede is doing the very best they can given the current circumstances.”

While work is being done on Station 31, a battalion chief is staying on site to respond to calls in Historic Lathrop while an engine is dispatched from another station to join either the battalion chief or the paramedics from Manteca District Ambulance that are still responding to calls from their J Street location.

The unit staying onsite at Station 31 is currently responding to calls with an automated external defibrator, a mechanical CPR machine, and numerous other first aid supplies to render aid to critical patients if the need arises.

While the delay technically means that it could be another two months until an engine company is housed and operating out of that location, the temporary solution does not appear to raise the response times to incidents in that part of town above the coveted 5-minute window.

According to comments that Interim Fire Chief Josh Capper made to the district’s board during their last meeting, some response times have increased by as much as 52 seconds, but all surveyed zones boasted times below the 5-minute threshold.

“While we aren’t pleased to see this increase, we have to also recognize that we are still slightly under the average time of 5 minutes from the time the station receives the alarm until the first units arrive on scene,” Capper said. “Really, we are in this together and it’s a team effort between the crews and the battalion chiefs to keep those response times as low as possible until the end of the project.”

The 50-year-old building on J Street will be getting some much-needed renovations as part of the $3.75 million facelift including modern system alerting capabilities and vehicle exhaust systems.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.