Referendum for Fairfield fire station set for March 1

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield residents will head to the polls on March 1 to decide whether to approve the construction of a new fire station at the corner of West Briggs Avenue and North Fourth Street.

The project’s expected cost is $6 million, which will cover design, construction and demolition of the existing vacant buildings that housed Department of Transportation offices.

If voters approve the plan, the city expects to big the project a little over a year from now in January 2023, with construction lasting from April 2023 to April 2024 and to have the fire department move into the new building in May 2024.

To educate the public on the referendum, the city will host a series of meetings in January and February. Fairfield Fire Chief Scott Vaughan, Fairfield City Administrator Aaron Kooiker and Fairfield City Engineer Melanie Carlson will discuss the project with civic organizations throughout January:

• Jan. 4 at noon — Fairfield Lions

• Jan. 6 at 6 p.m. — Jefferson County Farm Bureau

• Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. — Fairfield Kiwanis

• Jan. 21 at noon — Fairfield Rotary

The public is invited to learn about the project through a pair of open houses to be held at city hall on Feb. 7 and Feb. 17, with meeting times to be announced later.

Kooiker has said the city will be able to fund the new fire station without raising property taxes because the city will have finished paying off old debt just as it is taking on the new debt from the fire station. Carlson said that projection was based on the fire station costing between $4-5 million, not $6 million. She said inflation during the past few years has forced the city to raise the expected cost of the project.

To get a sense of the rise of inflation in construction costs, Carlson said during Monday’s City Council meeting that the big open gym area of the Cambridge Recreation Center (which opened in 2016) cost $150 per square feet. The big open vehicle bay area of the new fire station would cost $230 per square foot, an increase of more than 50 percent.

Given this inflation in construction costs, it’s not clear yet whether the city will need to raise property taxes to fund the new fire station. The city will receive funds from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and those funds could go toward the fire station. Carlson said city staff will recommend that, so the property tax levy can be kept the same. The city council’s ways and means committee will look into the issue as it prepares the 2022-23 budget.

Carlson talked about some of the proposed fire station’s features during Monday’s meeting. She noted it would have nine pull-through bays, which means the building will have garage doors at the front and back so the drivers never have to go in reverse, and instead can go in one door and out the other. She said this will be a great convenience for the drivers and an improvement in safety.

Another aspect of the new station would be a training tower with a staircase on the outside. Not only would this give the fire fighters a place to train, but it would also lower the city’s insurance premiums. Carlson said the fire department often invites other fire departments in the county to its trainings, so neighboring cities like Libertyville and Lockridge could send their firefighters to trainings at this tower.

Since the fire station’s training tower would be in a residential area, it would not host controlled burns.

“Any training would be with a smoke machine,” Carlson said. “They’re not planning to set anything on fire.”

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