Council pursuing new fire station
The council gave permission for the city manager to pursue the acquisition process.
The piece of land, with an estimated value of
Meek said it was necessary for the city to build a new fire station.
"Once the letter of intent is executed, the parties will negotiate a sales contract," she said, adding that the contract will require council approval.
If approved, the new station would be a replacement for Fire Station No.3, 1701 Spruce, which was partially closed in
The living quarters and office areas are no longer used because mold was discovered. The firefighters have been in portable buildings next to the station for about three years.
The only useable part was the bay area where trucks and equipment are kept.
In a previous edition of The Banner,
"The station was built in 1964, and then it went through a flood back in the mid-2000s, it flooded [the building] out. It actually sits in a floodplain currently," he said in 2015.
"I know nothing about real estate or real estate prices so pardon me for coming across a little ignorant on that," he said. "The location -- [a resident] is wondering why this location, possibly a high end value real estate."
Meek said she has been involved with the land search since she began working for
"We looked at many different places. (Highway) 81 was our first place to start looking and I will tell you that the real estate value along 81 is much higher than what we are getting for this piece of property," she said. "This piece of property is in development which means, right now, what it is worth and what it is worth once the water lines and the road is placed is only going to gain in value from there. It also has access to the bypass and access to Elk -- the hospital, the middle school. It is a very good location as we begin to grow more west and provide for that new population."
--Construction manager hired:
Following the announcement,
Due to the length of the council meeting, Meek and Police Chief
"Southfork L.L.C is four individuals, one of whom is
Meek said Wilson just happened to be the point of contact for that property.
Southfork will be doing major work as part of the sale, including hooking up the site to utilities, leveling the land, creating driveways and two exits to
"It is not in a flood plain but they will be doing some leveling and bringing in dirt and leveling that for us -- moving dirt is a big cost," Meek said. "It will basically be ready for us to drop a building on it."
The new city hall contract is separate from the possible property on Elk and is a different type of contract for the city said Meek.
"The contract we have with
This type of contract is unique said Meek, as it helps the city by having a dedicated person in charge of the whole project.
"Instead of the city having to decide each (contractor) -- plumbing, and carpentry work -- and know the specs, I hire somebody to provide that knowledge and expertise," she said.
Regarding the pursuit of the Elk property, Ford said many factors went into the years-long search.
"One of the things you have to look at is the ISO (Insurance Service Office ) rating for fire for the city," he said. "What you are concerned about is for certain keeping it level but even more so lowering it. There's a number of factors that go into that."
The city's current ISO rating is 3. Lower numbers indicate better fire coverage service and lower insurance rates.
"One thing is the infrastructure for your water -- the size of your line, the size of your hydrants, the number of hydrants, the output. You see the color code on the hydrants out there, that's to tell you what they pressure at, that's what water level they can produce. ISO comes and looks at that."
Another factor is fire department location, Ford said.
"At the time this city was put together, there is no doubt in my mind, looking on how it was structured from old pictures and maps, they did right locating the fire stations," Ford said. "The problem of it is, the town's taken off."
Ford said the town was anticipated to grow to the south, and the reality has been more growth to the west and north.
Ford said he remembered when
"We are not only trying to get is so we can serve the northern and western part of the town but we've got to get to the industrial park," he said. "At present, our run times up there are somewhere between about 18 and 20 minutes, that's way too long. For the location that we are looking at we are looking at seven-and-a-half minutes because we can get on the bypass."
-- Extended online version -- Meek said that's one reason the city has been looking at different areas.
"We looked at two properties on North -- four lane -- 81, they were considerably higher and we would have do on some of those -- the streets, the water, the sewer those kinds of things, which is a tremendous cost," Ford said. "The other thing you get when you go that direction is you get a divided highway, so unless you set it very strategically you have to go the wrong way sometimes to go the right way (make a u-turn) or you have to put a cross over in and those can be a quarter of a million dollars alone."
Meek said they had been looking at the old Byford building which was a strong competitor, but the
"We didn't originally look for anywhere this big," Ford said. "The land allows for expansion, ones of the things we don't have is a training center, we don't have a training tower, we don't have a burn building -- a controlled burn for training -- that acreage allows for that."
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