Station issue heats up
At least one Payette City Council member questions some key points of new fire station bond blueprint
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, October 28, 2007 3:07 AM PDT
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| Payette firefighter Brad Harris (left) and battalion commander Russ Ward prepare to perform a basic monthly oil, filter and belt inspection of a city fire truck in a parking lot across the street from the Payette Fire Department Friday. The inspection has to be performed across the street because the fire station building is too small and not tall enough to have the operation done there. |
PAYETTE - Although the Payette City Council passed an ordinance in September to place a $2.2 million fire station bond before voters, at least one council member is not entirely sold on the plan.
Payette City Councilwoman Vallery Klitch said although she thinks the city needs a new fire station, she is concerned about the current proposal.
Klitch said she is concerned on three points: Whether the city will be able to sustain an approximately 16,000- square-foot fire station after it is built; whether the city can justify building a 16,000-square-foot building, which is about four times larger than the current station at a little more than 4,000 square feet; and how much of the future should the current taxpayers have to pay for.
Klitch said her concern stems from possible future budget issues the city may face, versus how much it will cost to sustain and operate a 16,000-square-foot fire station. She said even if the city takes its allowable 3 percent tax increase, the move will only generate about $50,000.
“That’s always been the problem — I could always see the numbers out ahead of everybody else,” Klitch said.
She said her job as an elected official is to seriously evaluate how the city is going to pay for and sustain projects without cutting other services. So far, Klitch said, she has not received any answers regarding how much it will cost to sustain the fire department.
“I think it’s a reasonable expectation to know what your expenses are going to be before you borrow any money,” she said.
Payette City Coordinator Mary Cordova and the architect the city hired to help with the project say, however, many costs, such as utility expenses, are unknown at this point and will not be available until further along in the project.
“It’s hard to do until we have done a complete energy analysis,” Cordova said.
According to Cordova, Dion Zimmerman, Gowland, Johanson & Zimmerman Architects, based in Payette, said the building will be virtually maintenance free for some time. Cordova also said city officials intend to use an energy-saving design.
Zimmerman said, at this point, only the building design has been completed, but when it is time to start planning the construction, many factors will be taken into consideration to build the most energy-efficient system as possible, including what building materials are available to build an energy-efficient system, room groupings, consolidation of HVAC systems and possibly alternative energy, although he doesn’t anticipate using solar or wind in Payette’s case.
“If the question is, can we spend the same amount of money, the answer’s no,” Zimmerman said. “But we can do a heck of a lot better utilizing energy efficient fixtures in a newer facility.”
Klitch said, however, her sustainability concerns extend beyond utilities. She said she also does not consider it practical to base the future sustainability of a fire station on unconfirmed revenue sources, such as a rental agreement from the Payette Rural Fire Department to use the new station’s bays, which has been presented as an additional revenue source.
She also does not know if a city the size of Payette can justify asking for a 16,000-square-foot building. Klitch said she would have liked comparisons on what size stations other cities with a similar population to Payette have.
Klitch also questions whether current taxpayers should shoulder the cost of the project that will also accommodate future growth in the city.
She said, if the city was going to expand its department to take care of growth issues, then impact fees could be used to pay for that. The city, however, currently does not have an impact fee ordinance, although officials plan to consider one in the near future.
“The question that administration has to answer is what justifies a 16,000 foot fire department and how we’re going to sustain it,” Klitch said. “And ultimately it’s up to the taxpayers, and they will make that decision Nov. 6.
“It’s pretty clear I don’t agree with what’s going on,” she added. “The good thing is that this issue is one that the public is going to decide.”
Other elected leaders, however, said they don’t see the fire station issue in the same light as Klitch does. Payette Mayor Doug Henderson said the proposed new fire station not only will be much more energy-efficient, but it will be safer as well, which is a big concern at the current facility. He also said every bit of the 16,000 feet planned for the new station carries a planned use.
“There’s no way in my mind that you can say that this building is too big,” Henderson said. “If anything we’re underestimating the amount of space we’re going to need. We’re completely filling up the building that we have proposed right now.”
City Councilman Mark Heleker said, while he understands Klitch’s concerns and thinks its good to keep them in mind, those issues have already been taken into consideration during the planning process.
“When we weigh everything out, I definitely see many more pros,” he said. “The only con in my mind would be sustainability.”
He said he is convinced, however, the building can be sustained, and just because the proposed building is four times larger does not mean it will cost four times as much to operate. Heleker said, in his opinion, the new fire station is much more “economically advantageous” from a location stand point to the fact it will be more energy efficient, safe and an attractive addition to the city.
He does think the city has justified its need for a building that size because the current fire station doesn’t have enough room to accommodate all of the fire department’s equipment, vehicles or enough space for training and firefighter meetings.
He also said it is more appropriate to build a fire station that allows for a little expansion because the community is growing, and will only continue to grow based on the development coming in, and the city needs to be prepared for that. In the future, if the city institutes impact fees, they can be used in other aspects of city government to offset the fire station, Heleker said, adding it doesn’t make sense to wait on building a new fire station to see if impact fees could help with the cost when a new fire station is needed now.
“For the future of this community, I can’t think of anything that would benefit us more,” Heleker said.
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