LOWELL -- Plans for the city's second fire station passed through the Planning Commission's development process and work can now get started.
The station will be built on 100 acres at the northwest corner of Bellview Road and Zion Church Road, which is planned to become the Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park. It's intended to be the primary response station for everything west of Dixieland Street, Fire Chief Mike Morris said.
Lowell Fire Station No. 2
Fire emergency response times to the side of the city west of Dixieland Street is 8 minutes, 9 seconds. Construction of the city’s second station will reduce the target response to 5 minutes, 20 seconds, Morris said.
Source: City of Lowell
Construction on the station is planned to begin in the fall. The Leonard and Kathleen Johnson Trust donated $1.1 million for the project, Mayor Eldon Long has said.
Chris Gatling, project manager at Garver Engineering, presented revisions of the plans during the commission meeting Monday night.
"The plans have addressed the majority of previous comments," Gatling said, hoping it showed the firm's good faith effort to move the project forward.
City Engineer Larry Gregory, who also works for Garver Engineering, said during a May 1 meeting the property will have direct access from Bellview. Water services and electricity will be installed on that side of the land, and a small, porous retention pond will be built on its southwest side with a plastic liner to prevent contamination from the septic system.
The latest version of plans include a concrete exit onto Bellview Road as the commission requested. Gatling said plans for the expansion of Bellview into a four-lane street were the reason project engineers previously called for asphalt. It would be an easier and less expensive way to provide a drive knowing it would eventually have to be removed and replaced, Gatling said.
Garver remedied a similar problem for the east entrance to the station by extending it 66 feet north to the beginning of the driveway at Zion Church Road, which will be built in the future. Latest plans also extend the planned sidewalk by 130 feet.
"What we have there we can do with out too much trouble," Gatling said. "We'll extend the sidewalk all the way to the north...with the potential that some of that sidewalk may or may not be torn out" during future road expansion and construction.
"I appreciate the addition of the sidewalk, that's something the city needs," said Commission Chairman James Milner.
The commission identified landscaping as a weak spot during the May 1 meeting.
"The intent is to put the (Lowell Historical) Museum and park nearby, they're designed to flow and incorporate together with minimal landscaping," Gregory said on May 1. "There's a hedge row at front of building, flower bed around flagpole and that's it at this point."
A total of 53 shrubs and eight trees were added to the plans, Gatling said, after suggestions from the commission during the May 1 meeting. Part of the increased landscaping was in response to removing three trees from Bellview Road to increase visibility for outgoing firetrucks.
Gatling said the additional trees will be on the south side of the building so they won't interfere with the safety of trucks coming and going.
Engineering review of the plans was done by retired engineer and resident John Ratzki, Gregory said in a document provided at the meeting, to avoid a conflict of interest.
NW News on 05/16/2017