|
|
|
Home | About Us | Services | Volunteers | News & Events | Stations | Links |
|
|
 |
Station 25 (Lexington) Project
Lexington Fire Station Replacement Project
*Artist rendition of the new fire station 1796 Westside Hwy * Kelso WA 98626 PowerPoint Presentation for Station 25 LID Project (PowerPoint document) Proposed Timeline for St 25 LID Project (PDF document) June 2010 Update: A proposal for a new station and the unusual way to pay for it were scraped with an unanimous vote of the fire commissioners. Plans and geotechnical studies will be kept for whenever officials find a way to pay for a new station, but for now all plans are off. "We need a new station out there and we've done a lot of work ... but the message was very clear from residents about the timing and the process and a number of issues," Fire Chief Dave LaFave said in his recommendation to stop the project. "What's most important to us is maintaining the public's trust, and this has been confusing enough and there are enough feelings and emotions to fracture that trust." We will continue to seek grants and other sources of funding to hopefully proceed with this project in the future. January 2009 Citizens Committee
Overview: Overview of the Replacement of
the Lexington Fire Station: The Lexington area has seen significant residential growth over the last several years. In addition, the construction of a new bridge over the Cowlitz River connects the Lexington area directly with Interstate 5 and the more rural residential area east of the freeway. As a result, the number of calls for emergency response has grown to the point that the all volunteer staff is now responding to well over 600 calls for service each year. The Fire District has recognized the need to augment the traditional volunteer staffing but the existing station will not accommodate a change in staffing methodology due to the lack of sleeping accommodations. Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue originally constructed the fire station located in the community of Lexington in 1978. The station was designed for an all volunteer response and did not include crew sleeping quarters or adequate meeting room space to facilitate required training. The station was constructed using an Economic Development Agency matching fund grant that mandated that the funds be used within a specific time period. As construction proceeded it was discovered that there was a problem with the fill material that was used to level the lot and that there was significant likelihood that the building would settle. Due to the funding time constraints the contractor was instructed to install an expansion joint in the structure to allow movement without causing structural damage to the fire station. Over the years the station has settled as predicted and has caused a number of issues within the building including separation of the exterior wall at the expansion joint, doors that do not shut properly, numerous cracks in the sheetrock walls, and the apparatus bay floor is now significantly sloped to the point that emergency vehicles tend to roll if parking brakes are not set properly. As the call volume in that area started to rise, the Fire District evaluated the existing fire station to determine whether or not it would be feasible to expand the structure to facilitate staffing the station on a regular basis to give some relief to the traditional volunteer responders. A structural engineer was retained in 2003 to evaluate the station and he determined that, while the building is not dangerous to occupy as it exists now, expanding the building would not be feasible and in fact could possibly destabilize it. As a result of that input, the Fire District contracted with an architectural firm to design a new fire station that had all of the necessary features to facilitate regular staffing in order to handle the growing call volume. Preliminary design work indicated that the fire station would need to be approximately 8,500 square feet to provide the services the Lexington area is demanding. The construction costs at that time were estimated by the architect to be approximately $4,200,000. Without a means to provide that level of funding the Fire District was forced to suspend the planning effort. The downturn in the economy has strangely presented an opportunity to re-evaluate this project and with a renewed design effort it is estimated that the new station 8,700 square foot can be constructed for approximately $3,500,000. This new design incorporates all of the necessary crew quarters at will allow the Fire District to staff the station on a full time basis as well as provide a meeting room that will be available for public meetings and non-profit functions. The Fire District Board of Commissioners authorized the formation of a citizens committee to evaluate the possibility of using a local improvement district (LID) to fund a new fire station. The citizens committee consists of residents and business owners in the area served by the Lexington Fire Station. The committee was presented with information about the preliminary design of the fire station, the possibility of using an LID as a funding mechanism. At the recommendation of the citizens committee the District is proposing to seek the necessary funding through the implementation of a local improvement district that incorporates the primary area served by the Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Lexington Fire Station.
What is an LID? Local improvement districts, or special assessment districts, function as mainstays of local improvement financing. Special assessment was used as early as the thirteenth century, when an English law provided for special assessment to finance construction and maintenance of a drainage system in certain marshlands. This English special assessment system was adopted by the American colonies, and after independence, local governments continued to use special assessment under authority of state laws. A local improvement district is a geographic area in which real property is taxed to defray all or part of the costs of a public improvement. The distinctive feature of a special assessment is that its costs are apportioned according to the estimated benefit that will accrue to each property. LID processes lead, ultimately, to the sale of bonds to investors and the retirement of those bonds via annual payments by the property owners within a district. Goals of the LID process are twofold: to present a bond portfolio to investors that will entice them to invest at as low a rate of return as possible; and to assess property owners as fairly as possible in relation to the special benefit received. |
|
701 Vine Street * Kelso WA 98626 * 360.578.5218 Copyright © 2011 Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue
|
