City to fund land for fire station

The fire chief didn’t ask for it, but the Spokane City Council on Tuesday gave his department $350,000 to buy land to build a new station in Latah Valley in southwest Spokane.

Spokane City Councilman Brad Stark and Councilman Al French, who is running for mayor, had proposed spending $2 million of the $11 million the city had left over in 2006 to buy the land and construct the building.

That idea was amended Tuesday, after it was clear they didn’t have support from the rest of the council to spend any more than what it will take to buy the land.

Stark and French announced their idea at a press conference early this month. They were quickly criticized in a press release attributed to Mayor Dennis Hession for “the most blatant display of political maneuvering I have ever seen.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Stark called Hession’s “personal attacks” a sign of “bankrupt leadership.”

David Hayward, who is the president of a homeowners association in the Latah Valley, testified that response times are too slow in life-or-death medical situations. He added that increasing traffic congestion on U.S. Highway 195 is causing more collisions.

“For us to have a 12-minute response time in any place in our city is simply unacceptable,” Stark said.

Spokane Fire Chief Bobby Williams said the department’s higher funding priority is to regain firefighting jobs cut a few years ago from stations that receive thousands more calls for service than what would be served by a Latah fire station.

French and Stark’s proposal did not include ways to pay for staffing. In an interview afterward, French said the budget surplus is a sign that the city has the money to pay for more employees.

“We should have been spending that money on police and fire all along,” French said.

Councilwoman Mary Verner, who also is running for mayor, said the city needs to know how it will pay to staff a station before allocating money to build one. However, she said it is prudent to buy the land before prices increase.

Councilman Bob Apple, who was the lone vote against the land buy, said a new station should be handled in a fire bond that likely will be considered by voters in 2009.

“We’re trying to jump the gun on planning,” Apple said.

The Fire Department last year received about 100 calls from the Latah Valley below 20th Avenue, Williams said. He said it took crews 12 minutes or longer to respond to 29 percent the calls. In 66 percent of the calls, response time was 8 1/2 minutes or less.

French questioned if Williams was bending the numbers to minimize the need. A new station likely would serve an area that extends north of 20th, he said.

Williams said he chose 20th as the cutoff because the city doesn’t have response problems north of 20th in the Latah Valley.

Council President Joe Shogan questioned if the council’s action could force land prices up.

“Once we say $350,000, every landowner in that area is going to put a target of $350,000 on their property,” said Shogan, who voted for the spending on the final vote.