Not in my city park.
That's how a proposal to build a new fire station and public safety building on a popular city park next to the present Alpine fire station was received Tuesday.The new fire station would serve the Alpine-Highland Fire District, with a substation serving High-land.
City Councilman Kent Hanson, the council representative on the fire district, moved to have the fire station built there because of its central location and quick response time. His motion was backed by Fire Chief John Pool, but it died for lack of a second. Several residents also voiced their objections to losing the park, telling Hanson to find another location.
Frustrated, Hanson asked Mayor Joel Hall to appoint someone else to sit on the fire district board.
Hanson said a $100,000 state grant Alpine had for a fire station was lost when the district was formed last summer and the concept was changed to include a public safety building that would also house the police department and ambulance. The district still has $500,000 for the structure from a bond election that took place June 27, Hanson said. Interest is nibbling away at those funds, however.
He said before settling on the Alpine park site, the district looked at various sites, including one near the intersection of U-74 and 800 South in Alpine and at a Highland golf course. But those sites would slow response time to some Alpine areas, he said.
The council questioned whether Highland would go along with the district fire station being located in the center of Alpine. Hanson said he didn't know, but that was why a substation in Highland was part of his proposal.
Councilwoman Phoebe Black-ham suggested a citizen committee be formed to find a site for a new public safety building, but no action was taken on that idea. She said she would like to see more research on potential sites.