Fairfield fire station task force holds first meeting

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield fire station task force held its first meeting Tuesday night, where task force members learned about the challenges facing the Fairfield Fire Department and why it needs a new facility.

The Fairfield City Council created the task force earlier this year to study where to put the new fire station. The two options the task force is considering are remodeling or building new at the current site of the fire station on North Second Street or moving a few blocks west on Briggs Avenue to property formerly owned by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Fairfield City Engineer Melanie Carlson said the task force is expected to return a recommendation between these two options to the council later this summer, and in the fall to provide further recommendations about what the new fire station should include after a site has been chosen. She said the council will likely spend 2022 searching for grants and other funding sources for the project and then start construction in 2023 “at the earliest.”

Fairfield Fire Chief Scott Vaughan said the task force’s first meeting was spent reviewing the problems with the current fire station and why it needs an overhaul. Vaughan said the big problem is that the fire station doesn’t have enough space for its trucks and equipment. On top of that, the layout of the building is not ideal because its sleeping quarters open to the truck bay, so the firefighters are exposed to fumes and the contaminants brought back from a fire.

“We talked about all the carcinogens that are more prevalent today in the materials used to build houses,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan said his hope is that the new station will separate the fire station’s offices from the truck bays, the changing areas and shower areas, which will have special ventilation.

“We don’t want those carcinogens transmitted throughout the workplace,” Vaughan said.

The task force’s second meeting, to be held in mid-June, will include a tour of the two sites under consideration for a new station.

“We’ll show them how tight things are,” Vaughan said about the upcoming tours.

The 16-member task force includes people from various backgrounds and occupations. Vaughan said it has people from the world of business, education, insurance, realty, retired firefighters and more. Carlson said the task force’s purpose is to “look at the things we’re talking about with a different set of glasses.”

For instance, one difficulty with the current fire station is that fire engine drivers have to perform a maneuver on North Second Street (Highway 1 in that location) to back the truck into the station as opposed to driving in front first. Carlson said the department has had some “near misses” that were close to accidents from motorists who were not paying attention as they zipped by a firetruck. Carlson said she wants to hear from motorists about how they feel about this arrangement.

Carlson said that once the task force has made a recommendation about where to put the new fire station she expects the city will hold public meetings explaining the decision and educating residents about what they can expect from the new station. She said those meetings are probably a year away.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the task force voted to name Greg Hanshaw chair of the committee, and to name Jeff Koontz vice chair. When the task force was announced in February, it had 13 members, but three people were recently added: Darien Sloat, Barry Waugh and Sheri Blough Neff.

The other members of the task force are: Amanda Konczal, Amy Van Beek, Brian Stone, Carl Metcalf, Charity Richardson, Deb Buch, Don Hoelting, Ed Malloy, Hopi James and Shawn McCarty.