10/4/2009 10:59:00 PM
Black Canyon City's new fire station nearly complete
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Bruce Colbert/The Daily Courier
Black Canyon Fire Chief Tom Birch is about one month away from moving into the Fire Department's new fire station. Birch has worked toward building a new fire station for the past 13 years. |
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PRESCOTT - After 13 years of "hard work and frustration," Black Canyon Fire Chief Tom Birch's dream of a new fire station is about to become reality.
"The contractor told me that we could be moved in time to cook Thanksgiving dinner," Birch said during a tour of the 9,800 square-foot fire station.
When Birch took over the Black Canyon Volunteer Fire Department in 1996, he was the only full-time firefighter.
"We had six full-time dispatchers, Elaine (Caldwell) as administrative assistant, and me," he said. "Everyone else was a volunteer."
Now, Birch oversees a department with seven full-time firefighters, 23 reservists and several administrative staff. "This will be like living in a castle," Caldwell said of the $959,000 fire station.
Indeed. The current metal-sided fire station, built in 1983, measures about 3,800 square feet. The truck bay has room for only two vehicles. Other vehicles park outside on dirt.
Firefighters sleep in a modified singlewide mobile home. "They (firefighters) are jazzed about having real living quarters," Caldwell said.
The current Black Canyon Fire Station has been falling apart for years, Birch said. The leaky roof caused electrical short-circuits, there is little insulation, and the cramped, makeshift offices serve as overflow storage rooms.
The new fire station, located on 6.26 acres at 35050 Old Black Canyon Highway, boasts a conference room with computer terminals, a complete kitchen and dining room, laundry room, a communal sleeping area, two individual sleeping rooms, and a 5,688 square-foot truck bay - nearly double the entire square footage of the current fire station.
The Black Canyon Fire District is leasing the land for 50 years at $25 per year from the Bureau of Land Management. However, when Birch applied in 2005 for an $861,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan to build the station, he became a pawn in what he previously called "a bureaucratic nightmare."
Because the fire district was leasing the land, USDA would not loan the money without collateral. Birch could not build the station, which could be used as collateral, without the loan. "It was a classic Catch-22," he said.
As a last-ditch effort, he placed a bond election on a 2007 mail-in vote that district voters overwhelmingly approved. USDA bought the bond as its collateral, and Birch broke ground this past March.
"One of my goals for the past 13 years is to lower the town's ISO rating," Birch said. Insurance companies use the International Organization for Standardization rating system to set rates. An ISO-10 is the worst and one is the best.
ISO, which is a private firm, rates Black Canyon City residents at ISO eight. "I can get a five with the new fire station," Birch declares.
Although the fire department is about one month away from starting its move, Birch already is feeling nostalgic about the old station.
"I'll miss it for what it is - the first fire station this town had," he said. "I don't want anyone to forget how hard people worked back then to build this station."
The Black Canyon Fire Board is offering to sell the current fire station, its 0.67 acres of land and all the building's contents for $195,900.
However, one item is not for sale.
"I'm taking the rock base from the flagpole to the new station," Birch said. "I don't want the memory of this place lost."
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009
Article comment by:
disgruntled local provider
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009
Article comment by:
Thank You Tom!
Great Job! Don't EVER think that all your hard work has gone un-noticed.
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