Saying he was disappointed with lack of progress on a planned addition for the Crossville Fire and Rescue Station 1 addition, Councilman Mark Fox brought the issue to Tuesday night’s monthly work session for an update and discussion.
“I brought that up,” said Fox. “We’re more than half way through the fiscal year and, to my knowledge, nothing has been done, nothing has happened on our approved budget item … I’d like an update.”
City Manager Valerie Hale said staff met that morning to discuss the proposed renovations at Station 1, “and, we met this morning with codes and fire and are moving forward with hiring an architect.”
Hale added she hopes the project will be ready for work by the end of this fiscal year (June 30 or before).
Hale continued that confusion of over whether the addition will hold firefighting apparatus or will include ambulances has caused some delay.
Because of this, Hale said she asked the engineering department to hold off on the project until that was clarified.
“I think those bays will be used for storage place whether we have — until we get ambulances. I think those bays are needed for storage,” said Fox.
“I thought you were putting the building on top of the closed street (the short street between the police and fire buildings),” said council member James Mayberry.
He then asked how fire equipment would access the bays on the new addition and was told fire engines (and ambulances, if the city goes into the ambulance business) will back into the bays off Henry Street.
The closed street proposed to be used is directly across from Bank One’s drive-thru area, and Mayberry expressed safety concerns.
Fire Chief Chris South said the closed street would be used no differently than it is now and that fire units have used it off Henry Street to park in the current bay.
Mayberry asked why a drive-thru bay wouldn’t be safer.
South responded that the slope of the road would cause some difficulty in using drive-thru bays.
He added drivers of the fire units would only take about 20 seconds to back off Henry into the fire department parking area and the department could use personnel to assist in getting the units back in the station as quickly and safely as possible.
City Engineer Tim Begley said another problem is the need to have a building plan and design which could create different requirements from the state fire marshal’s office.
“Once we get these plans to submit to … there is a pretty good chance we can move forward on this project,” said Begley.
Hale told Fox that an update on progress would be presented at the city council retreat planned in six weeks.