Buckley looking at new home for city firefighters

Published 4:13 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

By Jessica Keller, The Courier-Herald

If the Buckley City Council adopted the 2004 budget with no changes at last night's council meeting, the city is one step closer to moving forward with plans to build a new fire station.

The City Council was predicted to have passed the budget at last night's meeting with no hitches.

The city has budgeted $75,000 to proceed with a new fire station preliminary design. The city hopes to find a fairly new station that's been built recently similar to what the city wants. If everything goes well, the city's fire station plans can be based off of the already existing plans, modifying them to fit Buckley's needs. This would save the city quite a bit of money, City Administrator Dave Schmidt said.

First however, professional work will be done to help identify the best site for the new fire station. Hopefully then a cost estimate for the project can be developed so Buckley residents can be informed of the cost.

Buckley Fire Chief Alan Predmore said, while a vote for a new fire station probably won't be on the 2004 ballot, hopefully a lot of the preliminary work can begin next year. Right now, he added, the city doesn't even have any solution proposals identifying possible sites for a new station.

Predmore said as much engineering work as possible will be provided by the city's engineers, determining space needs and site limitations before a site can be decided on and a cost estimate is provided. It is possible, however, some work will be performed by an outside consultant.

"Spending money for professional consultation services is how most people feel about paying for auto insurance," he said.

Predmore said it really depends on the site to determine what the new station will look like and what extended services, such as a firefighter resident program, can be provided. He said the city may learn there are economic advantages or disadvantages to different sites, and the city wants to build a station that meets needs and also is the most cost effective facility.

To help city officials get an idea of what other fire stations look like, compared with Buckley's, Predmore, councilmembers and a few others recently took a trip to other fire stations to see what their needs are and challenges they face.

"For me it's easy to visualize some of these needs, not only because it's my profession but because I'm in other fire stations all the time," Predmore said.

Similar to Buckley, the majority of other stations, even the newer ones, name a lack of space as a problem they face, and Predmore said storage is generally a typical concern.

While a new station in Buckley is still in its preliminary stages, the idea has been seriously considered for awhile.

In March of 2003, Predmore told the City Council the fire department is facing many planning challenges that are significantly impacted by the lack of facilities at the fire station. He addressed the council again in a workshop in April, reporting the existing fire station facilities do not accommodate the existing and future needs of the department.

A Public Safety Facilities Planning Committee was established to evaluate the current and future public safety facility needs of Buckley, and the committee met five times between June and September, answering the following issues: is there a current need, what type of facility would best serve the city, where would a facility best be located, how might facility renovations or construction be funded, what does the committee recommend.

The committee concluded there was an immediate need to expand the area of both the fire and police departments. The need for a new fire department, however, was seen as a more immediate need, with the possibility of the current police station expanding into the extra space.

The results of committee's report can be found at the city's Web site, www.cityofbuckley.com

Jessica Keller can be reached at jkeller@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald