Sun Valley analyzing new locations for firehouse
By Hayden Seder
In the not-too-distant future, the north Valley’s landscape figures to look a little different and be a little safer, too. That’s due to both the cities of Ketchum and Sun Valley inching closer to funding and building new fire station facilities here.
Ketchum Fire Station
The first of several open houses regarding a new Ketchum fire station and the bond it will need for constructing that station was held on June 25. The open house presented to voters what the new fire station would include, how the bond would work, and how steep would be too steep when it comes to paying for it.
Getting a new firehouse in Ketchum has been a high priority for a number of years, especially as the current facilities have grown more and more outdated and insufficient.
“For the last 25 years, we’ve been talking about a new fire station. The time is now,” said Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw.
The last administration attempted to similarly fund a firehouse with a bond, but at $23 million versus the current proposal of $10 million, the previous bond was rejected by voters. That bond also covered a new fire station and city hall.
Bradshaw and his administration have already purchased a building at 5th and 2nd streets for city hall and are ready to move in as soon as there is somewhere for the Ketchum firefighters to go. Then the current city hall land will be freed up for an affordable housing development.
The location for the new firehouse meets all the criteria for effective fire protection, something a recent third-party evaluation said the current facility did not. And the building plan is designed to accommodate any future consolidation with more than double the space of the current facility (from 6,080 square feet to 14,530 square feet). It will be in the city-owned dirt lot adjacent to the Wood River Community YMCA. This area is centralized and provides access to three major arteries (Highway 75, Warm Springs Road and Saddle Road), and the location will reduce response times with easy access to the City of Sun Valley and the Ketchum Rural Fire District.
Since the lot is already owned by the city, taxpayers won’t have to pay for the land. The fire station will also only take up half the space initially proposed for affordable housing in the same spot, meaning that the city benefits while the YMCA still has room to expand.
At base cost, the new fire station is estimated to hit $10.7 million, an expense that would need to be funded by a voter-approved bond. The bond measure would need 66 percent voter approval to pass, so the city is motivated to educate the public on what the bond would mean.
“The city’s job is to educate the voter and the property owner as to what they’re getting for their money,” Bradshaw said.
For a roughly $10 million bond, it would cost a property owner $20 per $100,000 of his or her property value. According to Bradshaw, the average property value in Ketchum is $700,000, so the cost to the property owner will be $140 per year for 25 years at a 3.5 percent interest rate.
The city surveyed people at both last month’s Fair on the Square event and the fire bond open house and found that 68 percent of respondents would be willing to pay for a $10-$12 million bond for a new fire station and 87 percent would support a bond measure (at $10.7 million). Participants at the fire bond open house indicated that they overwhelming support the base cost.
Over the course of the next three months, there will be several more open houses and city council meetings to consistently fine-tune and discuss building elements, costs, bond language and amount, deliberation and action. In September, Blaine County will be informed to put the bond measure on the ballot and finalized ballot language will be presented to the community. October will have three more open houses and early voting will begin Oct. 15. Nov. 5 is election day. If the bond is approved, a planning and zoning commission meeting will happen in December 2019, construction will begin May 2020 and will be completed summer 2021.
“I’m very hopeful that the bond will pass,” Bradshaw said.
Sun Valley Fire Station
The City of Sun Valley would also like a new firehouse to replace its current firehouse, which could be improved upon but hasn’t gotten as far as the City of Ketchum in its plans. A budget meeting will take place on July 8 to discuss whether next year’s budget might allocate any funds to a new firehouse, but for the current year, there is $25,000 budgeted to work with architects to analyze several possible sites to put a new firehouse, according to Taan Robrahn, fire chief for the City of Sun Valley.
Initial site analyses are being done to assess size, number of possible bays for fire trucks in a new station, and location. The Idaho Surveying & Rating Bureau (ISRB) requires a 1.5-mile response radius for a firehouse to maintain its insurance ratings, meaning that locations for a new firehouse are limited.
“We’ll be looking at response times and access points and also what’s best for volunteers to get to the station quickly,” Robrahn said. “We have to look at access routes.”
The current fire station isn’t really a station but a couple of bays at Sun Valley City Hall, which already demonstrates one of the primary problems.
“We need more area for storage of apparatus and also the approach in and out in the wintertime gets slippery and icy and slides right into the intersection there,” Robrahn said. “Part of the problem is the safety factor as well as size and lack of facilities.”