MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The consensus of a super- majority of the Mountlake Terrace City Council is: There is a need to build a new fire station, we’ve planned for it, so let’s do it.
Because of questions raised by a well organized group of citizens in Mountlake Terrace and at least one City Council member, plans to build a new fire station were put on hold.
Naysayers to building a new station have said they think it would be more appropriate to just remodel the public safety facility and/or if the city is going to build a new station, then let the voters decide whether they want to pay for it.
Currently, the plan is to use councilmanic bonds to fund the new station, not voter approved general obligation bonds which would have to be voted on by the public because it would add an additional property tax to pay off the debt, said Jerry Trojan, the city’s administrative services director.
Councilmanic bonds, on the other hand, what city officials plan to use is an already existing source of revenue to pay off the debt, Trojan said.
As far as a remodel option, Mayor Pro Tem Jamie Gravelle said, “it was briefly looked at just to be sure we weren’t doing anything stupid.”
What they found, she said, is that to remodel the fire station, which is connected to the city hall, they would also have to upgrade the attached building (the City Hall) to the higher codes of the public safety facility—and this would be too expensive.
She added, a new fire station has been in the Five Year Financial Plan and it was approved in the 2003-04 budget and there is already money saved to start paying off the debt.
“We’ve always planned to do it as the money came available so we didn’t have to raise taxes and that’s what we’re doing now,” she said.
Difficulty remodeling the station is the same reason, Gravelle said, it would be more complicated to rebuild a new fire station on the same foot print as the current one. But she wouldn’t confirm that city officials are looking to acquire new property somewhere else in the city.
Some of the difficulties with building a new fire station in the same spot are accessibility and storage issues not to mention lack of training space for the firefighters.
Council member Angela Amundson has always vehemently been against the idea of replacing the fire station.
Council member Douglas Wittinger is for building a new fire station, but would rather it go to a vote of the people and would rather it be built on city property rather than commercial property.
“I’m not really convinced that something else can’t be done,” Wittinger said.
He said in the past there has been an economic development plan which stated there was a lack of commercial property in Mountlake Terrace.
“So if we’re so desperate for commercial property why put a fire station on it,” he said.
Instead he had an idea to use some of the Evergreen Playfield property or he said—city staff also have other alternatives for city property.
The other five council members have said, in general, they are for replacing the station as planned for the past several years, using the councilmanic bonds.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
