While some commissioners had varying opinions on the necessity of a new firehouse, Taylor Mill voted to approve a construction bid to Radius Construction for the budgeted $3.8 million firehouse last week.
The new firehouse will be roughly 12,000 square feet. It will have nine off-street parking spaces and 23 existing shared spaces. It is also going to feature additional space for truck maneuvering. The new firehouse is to be constructed on roughly two acres of land on Taylor Mill Road between Winston Hill Drive and Lorraine Court.
Taylor Mill will not go into debt with the new firehouse, as they are sitting on about $8 million in reserves, according to City Administrator Brian Haney in October 2022.
The new firehouse is being constructed because of reported structural issues, mold spores and asbestos in the current station.
“When we first started drafting this ordinance about a new firehouse, I was a no, and today I still say no,” said City Commissioner Ed Kuehne, who voted against the motion.
Kuehne’s said he believed the city should have rebuilt the current firehouse.
“We should have taken 2 million dollars or less and rebuilt the old firehouse. We could have saved 2 million dollars and saved it to use for things like the roads,” Kuehne said.
Kuehne wasn’t sure the conditions of the current firehouse were bad enough to necessitate a completely new firehouse.
“They said there were spores in the old firehouse, but it was never proved,” Kuehne said. “I think every one of us has spores in our houses. When we talk about asbestos? I never found out where the asbestos was in the fire station.”
Commissioner Mark Kreimborg, who also voted not to pass the motion, shared the same opinion as Kuehne.
“We don’t need a new firehouse, I’ve been saying that all along,” Kreimborg said. “We are wasting taxpayers’ dollars. We can fix what we have. The mold was not bad. The asbestos was not bad. I don’t agree with wasting taxpayers’ dollars, and my vote is a big no.”
But not everyone is against a new firehouse.
At a meeting in December of last year, when discussing the firehouse, Fire Chief General Fernbach said he was happy with how things were going.
“It’s really good for the community,” Fernback said. “It’s also good for the department.”
Now that the bid has been awarded, construction should begin soon, and it is hoped to be completed within the next year.