Bryant dials back plan for fire stations

Money short; new buildings on hold

BRYANT -- Plans to build two new fire stations are on a hiatus after Bryant collected less than it expected from sales-tax revenue.

Voters in 2013 approved a $4.4 million bond issue, earmarked for financing costs of improvements for the city's Fire Department, including "two new fire stations and any equipment, furnishings and parking, street, lighting and utility improvements," according to the ballot measure. The approved measure also shifted the city's three-eighths percent sales tax -- an existing tax -- to pay for the bonds.

"Since our finance department has established more accurate reporting practices, staff has already discovered that the anticipated revenue stream to fund the fire departments was already dedicated for other purposes within the Fire Department," Mayor Jill Dabbs said during a council meeting last week.

The tax revenue is currently used for part of the Fire Department's operations and for payments on two new firetrucks, she said. On average, the tax brings in $1.5 million annually, City Attorney Chris Madison said.

"Based on the financial analysis conducted by staff, we should first pay off the city's new firetrucks before planning and constructing new fire stations," Dabbs said. "I recommend that as we enter into the 2015 budgeting process, we explore and consider methods to expedite the payoff of these trucks in order to proceed with the construction of the proposed fire stations."

The Fire Department got the two trucks in October 2013 for about $408,000 each, Fire Chief J.P. Jordan said, adding that the city financed the trucks for five years. The department sold two others that were "at the end of the life cycle," he said.

"I really want to get this going, and I know everyone in the city does," Jordan said of the new fire stations. "It does frustrate us. We know what we need, and we know that it is needed bad. It's just a matter of doing everything right before we do it. There's no use crying over spilled milk."

The new stations would replace Station 2 at 200 SW Third St. and Station 3 at 2224 Justus Loop. Both stations house the firetrucks and equipment, while the firefighters operate out of mobile homes parked outside. The mobile homes are more than a decade old, Jordan said, adding that they were there before the city made the transition from having a volunteer Fire Department to a full-time one.

With firefighters living in the mobile homes every hour of every day, Jordan said, the department is seeing "significant" wear and tear, including broken air conditioners or roofs. He added that the firefighters have been resourceful and making the repairs themselves.

Alderman Randy Cox, a retired fire chief, said he was concerned about the structural integrity of Station 3, along with the firefighters' safety. He has asked Dabbs to write a specification for a storm shelter for Stations 2 and 3, and to contact Crist Engineers Inc. to look at the structural integrity of Station 3.

"I am worried that the station is literally going to fall down around the truck," Cox said of Station 3.

That station was an old sewer plant, and when it was revamped into a fire station, the city extended the sides of the building with wood from the concrete and pitched a wood roof, he said.

"It's like a big, long tunnel," Cox said. "The trucks are literally bumper to bumper. I'm concerned the roof is going to cave in on them."

City officials met with the engineering firm last week and are waiting for an estimate on Cox's requests. Jordan plans to present the costs of a structural integrity test, along with estimates from area vendors who supply storm shelters, to City Council members during the August Finance and Personnel Committee meeting.

Cox said he thinks there are ways to finance operations, the firetrucks and the two new stations, but he would not reveal his plans because he is running for mayor, a race that will be settled in the Nov. 4 election.

Initially, city officials thought they could spend about $2 million on each fire station based on figures from former Finance Director Cindy West, who resigned last year. From there, architects gave city officials a proposal that included a training room that could seat up to 30 people, officials said.

The city doesn't have a time limit on issuing the bonds, Madison said.

"Generally, when bonds are issued, people are ready to spend the money right away," he said. "Fortunately, in this instance, we didn't do that. The project revenues for the three-eighths weren't initially what they were forecasted as. [The projects are] still moving. It's just not moving at what anybody's pace is like."

In April, Dabbs told the Finance and Personnel Committee that the city had to scale back on the construction expenses for the fire stations because revenue ended up coming in flat.

The city paid for a special election in November, when the voters approved the bond measure, and forked over some $20,000 for the initial design and engineering plans for the stations, Cox said.

But, Jordan said, the city is continuing to plan the stations without the expenditures.

"We're not dead in the water on it," he said. "We're still moving forward as far as the planning."

The city has already secured a new location for Station 3 and is looking at other sites for Station 2, he said.

"What we need to do is when she gets here, the [new] finance director will guide us as far as coming up with a project budget," he said. "The next big thing would be to work on a project budget and see what our options are from there."

Metro on 07/27/2014

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