By Tere Dunlap
tdunlap@themonroetimes.com
MONROE - Members of the Monroe City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the site of the new west side fire station and authorized a certified map of the site to be prepared.
The station, if built, will be located on 2.3 acres in the Honey Creek Business and Industrial Park, facing 17th Street.
Chuck Koch, chairman of the Public Safety Committee and a member on the CIC, expressed concern that the public would perceive the site approval as taking the city "one step closer to approval" of a second fire station.
But Thurston Hanson said his concern was "to justify the cost taxpayers will be paying." He saw space need and safety as the main reasons to proceed with the site approval.
Alderman Mark Coplien made the point that an open bay in the downtown fire station would "solve some of the Police Department space needs." Police Chief Fred Kelley agreed that the extra space could benefit his department for as many as 15 years.
Rausch reminded the committee members that the Fire Department offices would be located in the new station, leaving more room at City Hall, where crowding has become a problem.
Coplien also related his witnessing the response time to a rollover accident on the west side the Sunday before Christmas. The command vehicle arrived fairly quickly, he said, but the other equipment needed to extricate the driver "seemed to take forever."
Monroe Fire Chief Daryl Rausch found his task of presenting the proposed fire station location cut in half earlier in the evening.
The Community Improvement and Public Property committees, meeting back-to-back, were scheduled to discuss the 2.3-acre site in Honey Creek Business and Industrial Park, chosen by the Public Safety Committee Dec. 3.
Rausch, who wants response time to the west side cut in half, was on hand to answer questions about the site.
But with most of the council members in attendance to ask questions at the CIC, not much was left to be discussed when members of the PPC took their chairs.
Rausch hopes to have the project designed and engineered in 2009 and to start building in 2010. The cost for the project is estimated at $700,000.
BUILDING SIZES SENT BACK
In other business, the Community Improvement Committee send back a proposal by City Administrator Mark Vahlsing to set a minimum building size requirement for the sale of land in industrial parks. But committee members said, besides establishing an additional tax base, the industrial parks were created to increase the number of jobs, and building size was no indication of promising either of those. Vahlsing said he would come back with wording in the proposal that would encompass additional criteria, such as building value and creation of jobs, for the $1 land sale program.
tdunlap@themonroetimes.com
MONROE - Members of the Monroe City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the site of the new west side fire station and authorized a certified map of the site to be prepared.
The station, if built, will be located on 2.3 acres in the Honey Creek Business and Industrial Park, facing 17th Street.
Chuck Koch, chairman of the Public Safety Committee and a member on the CIC, expressed concern that the public would perceive the site approval as taking the city "one step closer to approval" of a second fire station.
But Thurston Hanson said his concern was "to justify the cost taxpayers will be paying." He saw space need and safety as the main reasons to proceed with the site approval.
Alderman Mark Coplien made the point that an open bay in the downtown fire station would "solve some of the Police Department space needs." Police Chief Fred Kelley agreed that the extra space could benefit his department for as many as 15 years.
Rausch reminded the committee members that the Fire Department offices would be located in the new station, leaving more room at City Hall, where crowding has become a problem.
Coplien also related his witnessing the response time to a rollover accident on the west side the Sunday before Christmas. The command vehicle arrived fairly quickly, he said, but the other equipment needed to extricate the driver "seemed to take forever."
Monroe Fire Chief Daryl Rausch found his task of presenting the proposed fire station location cut in half earlier in the evening.
The Community Improvement and Public Property committees, meeting back-to-back, were scheduled to discuss the 2.3-acre site in Honey Creek Business and Industrial Park, chosen by the Public Safety Committee Dec. 3.
Rausch, who wants response time to the west side cut in half, was on hand to answer questions about the site.
But with most of the council members in attendance to ask questions at the CIC, not much was left to be discussed when members of the PPC took their chairs.
Rausch hopes to have the project designed and engineered in 2009 and to start building in 2010. The cost for the project is estimated at $700,000.
BUILDING SIZES SENT BACK
In other business, the Community Improvement Committee send back a proposal by City Administrator Mark Vahlsing to set a minimum building size requirement for the sale of land in industrial parks. But committee members said, besides establishing an additional tax base, the industrial parks were created to increase the number of jobs, and building size was no indication of promising either of those. Vahlsing said he would come back with wording in the proposal that would encompass additional criteria, such as building value and creation of jobs, for the $1 land sale program.