Brentwood took first steps this week toward building a new fire station at Empire Avenue and Grant Street even though the financially strapped East Contra Costa Fire Protection District has no money to staff it.
In the past few months, ad-hoc committees for both the city and fire district have been assessing sites and gathering ideas for eventual construction of new fire stations in Brentwood and other communities within the district.
On Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved its committee’s recommendation to seek proposals for architectural and engineering services to estimate how much it will cost to design and construct a fire station. Because the fire district board on Wednesday night also approved that course, the city now can start changing the site’s land use designation from park to public facility to accommodate the station.
Though most agree the fire district needs more stations and employees to adequately serve the 115,000 residents and businesses in the area, several tax measures to pay for that have failed to win voter approval. In the meantime, though, about $6.5 million in development fees have been collected to finance construction of a fire station, but the money for extra staff will have to come from elsewhere.
“As the district continues to work on ongoing sustainable revenues to staff fire stations, it is important that we get in front of that planning and start to plan the construction of fire stations,” Brentwood City Manager Gus Vina told the council. “It is critical that we not wait until the (fire) district is successful with their measures and then start the process to plan for construction of stations.”
The fire district serves 249 square miles encompassing the cities of Brentwood and Oakley as well as the towns of Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, Bethel Island and unincorporated Marsh Creek and Morgan Territory. Its plans ultimately call for four stations in Brentwood, three in Oakley and two in unincorporated areas.
Vina said the city’s ad-hoc committee has recommended the new fire station include enough room for administrative offices, a board room and fire protection training. The current administrative fire staff works out of Brentwood City Hall, which Vina said has proven “difficult.”
“It’s important we get a handle on this concept of an administrative component to the fire station,” he said. “It’s going to be a shared cost between the city and the fire district. I think it is a logical step to take, and the RFP (request for proposals) will be in the house, so there’ll be no additional cost.”
The 5.4-acre property at Empire Avenue and Grant Street, which the city owns, is big enough to accommodate the administrative facilities, Vina said.
The plan also calls for adding two-person rescue squads — a firefighter and an EMT or paramedic — to temporarily staff a new station, he said.
“The idea is to look for early implementation of a two-person rescue squad as a bridge to a full-engine company (nine-person) fire station and an EMT or paramedic rescue squad,” Vina said.
Money for the buildings will come from development impact fees, and additional fire protection funds may come from future developer agreements and potential new community facilities districts, he said.
“Hypothetically, if tomorrow we had all the funding in place and approval to do so, we could run a two-person squad out of existing stations,” Vina added.
Councilwoman Karen Rarey, who is on the fire and medical services ad-hoc committee, said the idea of two-person squads to fill the gap goes back a couple of years when the Knightsen station was closed.
“We hear what our residents are saying, that we need more protection in here,” she said. “This is a way that we can build toward a full engine as development comes in.”
Councilwoman Claudette Stanton asked if a mini park could be built on the station property since it’s now zoned for a park.
The city manager replied that wouldn’t be feasible. “You already have 90-plus parks, and with what is in the pipeline, you will be at 100 parks in our city very soon.”
Councilman Joel Bryant agreed, saying he supports the current plans for the new fire station.
“I have never had a single one of our residents approach me asking for more parks, but I have had almost all of them beg me for more fire protection, so I think it’s pretty clear what our community is asking for.”
Firefighter Vince Wells, president of the United Professional Firefighters of Contra Costa County, said he supports the city’s efforts to obtain a new fire station.
“If we were to get $10 million tomorrow, we wouldn’t be able to do much with that without having the resources in place, or a station in place to put the personnel in, “ Wells said. “We appreciate the city working ahead of time and saying, ‘we will build it and then the firefighters will come when we get the revenue.’ I think that is very wise.”
The city of Oakley, in conjunction with the fire district, has made a similar arrangement and is building a fire station while searching for ways to pay for the staffing.
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