Commission pushes hard for new firehouse

The Port Washington Police and Fire Commission on Monday threw its weight behind a task force proposal to build a new, $5 million fire station off Grand Avenue, saying the facility is necessary to ensure public safety, particularly for people living on the city’s west side.

“We can’t wait anymore. We have to do it,”
commission member Jennifer Clearwater said.

“We’ve been very fortunate we haven’t had a disaster where we couldn’t reach the west side of the city,” Chairman Rick Nelson said. “Let’s do it before we have a disaster.

“This is a public safety concern — it’s been a concern for 27, 28 years. It’s time to get something going.”

The commission recommended that the Common Council endorse the plan and move ahead with planning and financing the new station. The council is expected to consider the recommendation when it meets Tuesday, June 4.

Building the new firehouse, which would serve as the city’s primary station, is expected to add $92 annually for 20 years to the tax bill for a $200,000 house.

The current fire station would then become a satellite firehouse, task force members said, adding that it would take a couple hundred thousand dollars to renovate the existing facility.

Task force member Marc Eernisse said that he’s heard community members question whether the city needs a primary fire station or a satellite facility. 

In 1992, he said, the city chose not to build a new fire station that was estimated to cost $650,000 and instead added onto the existing building — an addition that he said was too small from the day is was completed.

“Please let’s move forward,” Eernisse said. “Let’s not repeat the same mistakes.” 

Mayor Marty Becker, a former commission member, cautioned against downsizing the facility.

“That’s doing it on the cheap,” he said. “It makes no sense if you’re going to do something for 50 years or more to do it small.

“Port’s cheap when it builds. I personally think the public’s safety is worth more.”

Reflecting on the annual cost, Clearwater  said, “Ninety six dollars is a night out at Twisted Willow for two or three people.” Members noted that the current firehouse was built in 1967, when the department had six pieces of apparatus and 35 volunteers. Two bays were added in a 1995 expansion.

Today, the department has 17 pieces of equipment that barely fit in the station, and it has 59 volunteers and a full-time fire chief.

The task force recommended  building the firehouse on three to five acres, with its preferred site being the northwest corner of the Grand Avenue and Highway LL intersection — buying a portion of the property where Casey’s has proposed building a gas station and convenience store and a second choice being the former Schanen farm on Grand Avenue at Jackson Road.

Although the Schanen farm is city-owned property, access onto Grand Avenue, also known as Highway 33, could be an issue, Becker said.

The fact that Saukville controls sewer service to the property is also a potential issue, he said, although the land could be developed with a holding tank.

Ald. Deb Postl asked if the city had talked to Saukville about extending sewer service to the site at the village’s cost. The new station would provide a significant benefit to the village, she said.

The communities have talked but have been unable to reach a mutually beneficial solution, Becker said. 

The task force recommended the firehouse should be 15,000 to 20,000 square feet with five or six drive-through bays for vehicles, have eight dorm rooms and locker facilities for men and women, a secure EMS supply area, dive team equipment storage area, offices for the chief and officers, conference and workout areas and a training room that would double as a community room and fit 100 people with an adjoining kitchen.

The community room should have a separate entrance so it could be used by the public or rented out, something committee members said would bring in revenue.

Any extra space in the new facility that isn’t needed today could also be rented to other agencies, bringing in revenue, until the city needs the room, Ald. Dan Benning, a task force member, said. 

The fire department would not need to buy new apparatus for the station but instead would split the equipment it has between the two facilities, the task force said. 

“It’s not free. It’s not cheap,” Benning said of the proposed firehouse. “It’s not the Cadillac, but it’s not the Chevy either.”

While some people may consider such items as a workout room frivolous and unnecessary, Benning said, today these things are standard and will help attract and retain firefighters and EMTs.

Having adequate sleeping quarters and facilities for women will also help in that endeavor, Nelson said.

“Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing not to have them,” he said.

Having inadequate facilities will affect the community as a whole, Clearwater said, noting that people don’t want to move to a city without these things.

She compared it to  the school district, which went to referendum for its almost $50 million school building project at a time when real estate agents were talking about the fact that people didn’t want to move to a community with deficient school facilities.

The commission has been on record for years supporting the construction of a new firehouse west of the railroad tracks, a recommendation driven by the fact the current facility is cramped, inefficient and doesn’t have adequate facilities for women or paramedics.

Not only do most firefighters live on the city’s west side, commission members said, but if a train were to derail it could cause significant delays in responding to emergency calls.