By Alison Ecklund
Larson Newspapers
No one in the packed synagogue said they didn’t want a new fire station in the Chapel area, but some said they want one smaller than current plans show.
On Monday, May 18, over 100 people attended the Sedona Fire District’s informational meeting to discuss a proposed Chapel station at the Jewish Community Center of Sedona and the Verde Valley.
The station will be three bays, just over 9,000 square feet and cost $2.76 million, Assistant Chief Terry Keller told the crowd.
The need for quicker emergency response times in the Chapel area is real, he said, and situated in the middle of State Route 179, the station will serve as backup to Village of Oak Creek and Uptown crews when they’re out on other calls.
The building will be sustainable, LEA architect Larry Enyart said, with solar panels, solar heating, graywater harvesting, low-level lighting and natural materials.
According to Business Director Karen Daines, the district has options to fund the station without increasing taxes. In fact, she said, the district has lowered the mil levy rate from $1.65 to $1.55, so although taxes may stay the same fiscal year 2009-10 before assessed values change, they will surely go down FY 2010-11 when the values decrease.
By June 2010, SFD’s budget shows $2.8 million in capital reserves, she said, enough to complete the station.
If the board wanted to hold some of the $2.8 million for future capital projects, when revenues are down, it could finance $1 million to $1.5 million and pay the rest in cash, she explained. Annual payments for the financing vary from $128,000 a year for 10 years or $96,000 for 15 years.
Of the 20 people who spoke from the public, there was a divide between district residents who want the station as proposed and those who want a smaller, two-bay station.
Chapel resident Mark Casper brought 55 signatures on a petition to consider a smaller station that he said former Chief Matt Shobert presented in 2007.
“We are opposed to the current plan to build a $2.7 million station,” Casper said. “This oversized station is inappropriately designed for our residential-zoned area. Shobert’s original proposal was 4,400 to 5,000 square feet.”
It looks like the decision has been made, Norris Peterson said, but it’s a shame it’s not going to be what Shobert originally presented to the public.
“I looked Matt Shobert in the eye and he told me it’d be a two bay, 4,000 square foot station,” Peterson said. “I’m in favor of a fire station in the Chapel, no question about it. I’m just really angry about the process.”
Keller apologized that Sho-bert’s plans he shared with the public weren’t passed on to him when Shobert resigned April 2008.
“Most of those conversations happened before I was promoted to this,” he said. When he took over, they designed the station so trucks wouldn’t have to back up, he said, and with future use in mind.
If plans for the Chapel station were cut to two bays, he wouldn’t give up anything, he said.
“We would stack apparatus, bumper to bumper and deal with it,” he said. “But I think this community deserves a little more foresight than that.”
Chapel resident Karen Schmitt delivered a second petition to the board with 305 signatures of Chapel residents who “enthusiastically support the Chapel per the plans,” she said.
Of all the Chapel homes she visited, 38 percent were vacant or no one answered, 2 percent were undecided or needed more information and 3 percent were against it because of its cost or size, she said.
“For the sake of comparison, this station would be slightly over half the size of the Village of Oak Creek station and a lot more attractive,” she said.
With the plans prepared and the money available, if an emergency occurs in the Chapel area and there’s a delayed response, the district would face a large lawsuit, Susan Riley warned the board.
“I’m very much in support and I don’t understand the delay,” she said. “To drag it on like this doesn’t make sense.”
Some members from the public wondered why the district doesn’t place a roving ambulance in the Chapel area immediately no matter what size station is built or when.
Harr agreed.
“Regardless of if this project gets started, we’ll still have a year with what we have now,” Harr said. “Something should be done to have that emergency service ready.”
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 125, or e-mail
aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com
