Fairfield hosts first open house on proposed fire station

FAIRFIELD – Fairfield city officials fielded questions from members of the public Monday night about the proposed new fire station during the first of two open houses.

Three city officials – City Administrator Aaron Kooiker, Fire Chief Scott Vaughan and City Engineer Melanie Carlson – took turns speaking at the podium in the city hall council chambers, reviewing the city’s plan to build a new fire station at the corner of West Briggs Avenue and North Fourth Street. The city will hold a bond referendum on March 1 during which the city’s residents will decide whether to grant the city authority to borrow up to $5 million for the fire station, which is expected to cost $6 million.

Several of the questions asked during Monday night’s open house were about why the city couldn’t remodel the existing fire station on North Second Street. Carlson said that if the city were to remodel the fire station, it would need to bring the building up to code, and that is an expensive proposition because it would mean upgrading the roof, walls and foundation. In the end, it would not be cost effective, she said.

Vaughan added that the scope of the fire department’s activities has broadened to include grain bin rescue, water rescue and confined-space rescue, and that each of those requires equipment that the existing fire station cannot fit.

One member of the audience asked if residents who live just outside Fairfield pay taxes to the fire department since they rely on its services, and if they could therefore vote in the referendum. Carlson and Kooiker explained that yes, the townships in the county that rely on the Fairfield Fire Department tax their residents for fire services, and that amount is capped by the state. They said that, due to state law, those residents are not taxed for the fire department’s capital improvements, which must come from either general obligation bonds or local option sales taxes. Since those two sources of income are from city businesses and properties, only city residents can vote in the referendum.

Fairfield resident Ed Noyes objected to the city’s plan to build a new fire station for a number of reasons. The city plans to demolish the two buildings that once belonged to the Iowa Department of Transportation on West Briggs Avenue. Noyes said he thought that was a bad idea, and that those buildings could be put to use as senior housing or as a day care center, which the city council said it needed in its comprehensive plan. In fact, Noyes was one of the bidders on the property when it went up for sale in the summer of 2020, a bid that was won by the city.

Noyes said the city should factor into its costs the lost revenue from a taxpaying entity that could have moved into the DOT buildings. He said he was prepared to put six senior housing units in the building, and that it had “incredible plumbing.” He recommended the city remodel the existing fire station or build the fire station elsewhere, which he claimed would allow the city to lower taxes and save the DOT buildings.

“Why is there never an intention to lower taxes?” Noyes asked. “Taxpayer dollars went into those DOT buildings, and now they’re going to be destroyed. You’re destroying a public asset. Just use other options.”

The city officials disagreed with Noyes that cheaper options were available. Kooiker reiterated an earlier point made by Carlson that bringing the existing fire station up to code would be too costly.

Kooiker said even with a renovation, the existing site is not big enough to accommodate the kind of future expansion the fire department foresees decades down the road, whereas the proposed fire station on West Briggs would be large enough to accommodate future expansion.

“The architect is telling us we don’t have the space there,” Kooiker said.

The department has nine vehicles and an educational trailer, but due to a lack of space at the fire station, it must store those vehicles at four locations in town. The proposed fire station would accommodate all nine vehicles plus two extra bays for vehicles the department may acquire later.

Deb Buch is a registered nurse who works for Jefferson County Public Health, housed on the north side of the fire station. Buch was also a member of the city’s Fire Station Task Force which studied the pros and cons of building a new fire station at the current location or on West Briggs Avenue. Noyes alleged that city officials pushed the task force toward recommending the West Briggs site, but Buch said that wasn’t true, and that she didn’t feel any pressure from city staff to recommend one site over the other. Ultimately, the task force recommended the West Briggs site.

Buch said the task force members carefully studied the existing fire station and the DOT buildings. Her impression of the DOT buildings was that they were “very outdated” and that they were not ready for another entity to move into. She also said she and her co-workers like their office space on the north side of fire station and they have no interest in moving out.

“We just put in a new handicap accessible system,” Buch said. “We love being in that building.”

Some members of the public asked the city officials what would happen if the new fire station cost much more than they expected. The officials said they have already built in a 25 percent contingency fund into the budget, so even in the event of cost overruns, they expect to have enough money to cover the fire station, with $5 million from the bond and $1 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan.

Kooiker said if construction costs skyrocket in the near future beyond the $6 million budgeted for the new fire station, the city could look for further grant funding. If that still didn’t cover the cost, the city would need to do a second referendum or simply hold off on building the fire station. He said the city is committed to not raising the debt service levy, so that it will not increase residents’ property taxes.

The city’s next open house to discuss the proposed fire station with the public is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17 at city hall.

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