Brighton Council gives green light for building prep

BRIGHTON — Members of the Brighton City Council voted unanimously Monday night to allow land preparation and grant application drafting for a new fire department building after a lengthy discussion.

Municipal officials were adamant about the new space serving as a climate-controlled area to house equipment and trucks, but not a new station the department could move into, which would vacate the current building attached to city hall.

“The biggest question we need is, ‘Are you leaving Brighton?’ Or, ‘Are you going over there, and leaving us with an empty building,’” Mayor Melvin Rich said.

Firefighter Mark Cobb said the volunteers had no plans to abandon the current space.

Monday night’s votes authorized organizers to call in dirt to raise the lot, and consider cutting down any trees that would get in the way of a proposed new building. Another motion expressed support for a Riverboat grant application to fund the proposed building, contingent upon the council’s review of construction details before the grant’s submission.

While council members said they still had unanswered questions about the project, fire department representatives said they needed a sign that the city was on board before they’d begin the research necessary to answer those questions.

The motions represent the latest step in the city’s recovery from a vicious dispute over its fire department funding which had volunteers threatening to resign en masse at the start of the year. While the disagreement itself was settled in March, tensions continue to linger in municipal conversations about the department.

“The intent of the fire department is to let the stuff that’s been said and the mud balls that have been thrown go behind us, and move forward,” Cobb said. “We believe this is the way to do that. To work hand-in-hand with the city and build an improvement for the fire department, which benefits the citizens of the city and the township trustees.”

Doug Moothart, the Fire Advisory Board Member who made the motion to suggest Monday night’s votes to the council, said he wholeheartedly agreed. He left the meeting with a note of optimism about building plans.

“I’d like to thank the council,” he said. “I think we’re really making some progress, finally.”

As organizers get to work, they have a few big questions to answer in the next few weeks.

What’s the scope of the project?

City council members said they wanted to see an engineering plan for the building, and information about its exact size. Issues include whether the new building would have bathrooms, a meeting space or a shower. Such factors all play into its construction and upkeep costs.

A sub-issue hinges on whether the town’s Emergency Medical Services department is given a section of the building. Doing so is expected to add $10,000 to the project’s matching funds for a grant application, drawn from the EMS budget, but would require a building big enough to accommodate the department, and secure storage for its HIPAA-protected files.

Elected officials expressed concern that the extra space would add unaffordable maintenance and construction costs to the facility. Council Member Cathy Rich said a comprehensive budget plan for the construction, and other department needs, was a must-have.

“I would like to work with the fire department volunteers on your budget, I don’t think the reserves are what they were,” she said. “The growth is going to slow down a little bit, quite a bit actually. So I think that’s going to make it harder to plan for some of the purchases or replacements you want to do without sitting down and looking at it.”

While Cobb said the fire department would be happy to accommodate an EMS space in its plans, he said it wasn’t an essential element of the building.

“If they don’t want to be over there, and you don’t want them to be over there, we can build a smaller building and get by,” Cobb said. “It’s that simple … we’ll build a building that has three bays in it and be done with it.”

Is there a foundation?

Organizers were not sure Monday night whether the land across the street and south of City Hall still had a foundation, or if does, where it would be.

If one exists, its removal could complicate plans.

“The first step is determining if there’s a foundation in there, because if there’s a foundation in there, you’ve got to get it out,” Cobb said.

Who will do the work?

Firefighters said they could provide in-kind donations of labor to shave off construction costs for the roughly $250,000 project.

City officials were hesitant about the pitch, however.

“My issue is, employees of the city, the liabilities the city’s going to pick up,” Mayor Melvin Rich said. “If the fire department goes over and cuts (trees) down and somebody gets hurt, it comes out of worker’s comp … I’d just as soon see somebody else do that type of work, when there’s risk involved.”

Cobb said the department could still accomplish its goal by arranging for such donations from professionals in the community.

“Our belief is that, with the connections that we have as individuals and the fact that they’ve done business in this area, that we could get them to do some of those type of things,” he said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com