CdA voters to weigh public safety bond issue next week

A $1.4 million ladder truck and three fire engines costing almost $600,000 apiece are the big-ticket items in a proposed public safety bond measure going before Coeur d’Alene voters next week.

The city is asking for $6 million over 10 years, mainly to buy fire vehicles but also for some police needs. A similar tax measure approved in 2005 expires this year, and the city says property owners will see their taxes go down a bit even if the new bonds are approved.

The proposal, on the ballot Tuesday, needs approval from two-thirds of the votes cast in order to pass.

The money would be used to replace fire vehicles that are more than 15 years old, including the city’s ladder truck at fire station 1 downtown and engines at stations 2 and 3. The third new fire engine would go in a new station planned for the fast-growing west side of Coeur d’Alene, where emergency response times are the longest, Fire Chief Kenny Gabriel said.

The fire department also would replace its fire boat, a brush truck, four command vehicles, two inspector vehicles, a battalion chief unit, two utility trucks, hoses and air tanks, for a total of $1.4 million.

Also, the city would buy a $300,000 mobile command center that the police and fire department would share. It could be used for incidents like hazardous material spills, wild land fires, impaired driver enforcements and hostage situations, as well as for large community events like Ironman and the Fourth of July.

“That command center will get used in the summer almost every weekend downtown or around town,” Gabriel said.

The trailer-like vehicle would have work space and computer equipment that police and fire employees would share when they are working together at a scene.

“Having us in the same room, where we’re all involved in the decision-making, really helps,” police Chief Lee White said.

And for big public gatherings, White said, “It’s just a good, visible place for people to come for first aid, to report missing kids, whatever public service they need, it’s a one-stop shop.”

The bonds also would pay for construction of a $560,000 storage building that fire and police would share between station 2 and police headquarters. It would house equipment for the fire department’s technical rescue team as well as the mobile command center.

“We have pieces of equipment that cost the same amount as a high-end Porsche, but they sit outside all winter because we have no place to put them,” Gabriel said.

The police department also wants to move its information technology division from the police station into office space in the new building. Another $250,000 would be spent on carports for police patrol cars, including electrical outlets for charging all of the technology now added to the cars.

The bond also would fund $315,000 in security camera equipment outside police and fire buildings and inside the parking garage beneath Front Street at McEuen Park.

“This is mostly watching who is around the buildings immediately,” White said.

The fire department had a record number of calls in 2014 – nearly 8,000 – with close to half of those handled from station 2 at Ramsey Road and Kathleen Avenue.

The city hopes to start construction in 2016 on its fourth fire station, at North Atlas Road and West Hanley Avenue, to cover parts of the city projected to grow the most. Putting it there, Gabriel said, generally should cut in half the response times to the western boundary of the city of 47,000 residents.

“Our goal is to get to all calls, fire or medical, in four minutes or less 90 percent of the time,” he said.

It now takes crews at station 2 nearly 10 minutes to reach The Landings, a development at the northwest corner of Coeur d’Alene, even late at night with little traffic, Gabriel said.

The city already owns an acre of land for station 4 and is close to having the estimated $1.2 million needed for construction, collected from development impact fees.

The city has not identified sources for all the money needed to hire the nine firefighters/emergency medical technicians needed to staff the new station. The City Council will take that on in the 2015-16 budget.

The 2005 safety bond allowed the city to build its fire training facility, remodel stations 1 and 2, build a fire headquarters next to station 1, and pay off station 3 as well as the police station.