Fairfield council hears offer to purchase former DOT buildings

FAIRFIELD — The City of Fairfield is making plans to build a new fire station on West Briggs Avenue after the measure was approved by voters in March, but one resident is hoping to buy the land from the city in order to save the building on it and repurpose it for senior housing or a daycare center.

Fairfield resident Ed Noyes addressed the Fairfield City Council Monday and presented it with a formal offer for the property at West Briggs Avenue and North Fourth Street, which the city purchased from the Iowa Department of Transportation in 2020. Noyes offered to purchase the property for $250,000.

Noyes noted that his offer is $15,000 more than what the city paid for it. He said his offer had many advantages, such as “allowing the intrinsic value to be preserved and in accordance with the most important goals of the city’s master plan.” Noyes said that meant repurposing existing buildings rather than tearing them down, which is what the city plans to do with the former DOT buildings on the site to make way for the new fire station.

Noyes said he believed the city relied on wrong information when it purchased the property, which was that buried fiber-optic cables could not be used. Noyes recommended that, instead of tearing down the DOT buildings for a new fire station, the city should expand its existing station on North Second Street.

Fairfield City Attorney John Morrissey said Noyes had already made this suggestion to the council, and the council did not agree with his assessment.

“I don’t think anyone on the council has come around,” Morrissey said.

Noyes said that he has increased his offer by $50,000 since he last brought it up to the council.

Morrissey said the council couldn’t accept Noyes’ offer Monday night because it had not agreed to sell the property, for which it would first need to pass either a resolution or an ordinance. Morrissey remarked that the city formed a fire station task force to study where to put a new fire station, and the committee members agreed that the former DOT location was best.

Noyes claimed that the task force did not give consideration to expanding the current fire station. However, council member Katy Anderson, who was also on the task force, said that wasn’t true, that the task force told the city staff not to consider the existing site because of the problems with the building.

“We did consider it, and we specifically told city staff that it was not an option we as a task force wanted to consider,” Anderson said.

Council member Martha Rasmussen said the city has already studied the matter, and the task force has already made its recommendation to the council to build a new station.

“I think we need to move on,” she said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com