Upper Pine Fire Chief Bruce Evans has a dream for a new live-in fire station coupled with a community and recreation center that would replace the old middle school west building and the old gym on South Street.
The fire district paid to hire an architect/planner with expertise in these facilities to provide two site and façade plans. Evans presented them on Sept. 8 to a downtown revitalization stakeholders group and the town planning commission.
"This is a unique concept, to have a fire station, rec center, and gun range," he said. "We think it will draw attention of a private donor" to help pay for it. "The fire district will be chasing a private donor. We're trying to have this full cost estimate by the May 2016 Local Philanthropy Day." That's when an assortment of foundations from the Front Range meet with regional entities seeking grant funding.
There would be user fees, and the fire district is recovering nicely from financial shortfalls that caused a need to double the property tax rate in 2013, Evans said. He expects that in three to five years, the district board can lower its tax rate, helping cancel out any other tax increase to pay for a recreation district.
"Mill Street needs to be a destination," Evans said. "It needs a draw to bring and keep people. It's a great opportunity for kids. We hear constantly that there's not enough for kids to do. The school district rec capacity is maxxed out, especially for adults."
He showed two designs for a fire station facing onto South Street. It would replace the old gym, which Evans said has some structural issues. Evans clarified that the architect identified those, but none is considered critical or life threatening.
The whole structure would be L-shaped, with the rec/community center part of it running north-south. The big gym could be divided into three smaller gyms. The design has office space and a library annex at the south end. The proposal has some retail space, most likely to sell sportsing or exercise-related goods, fronting on South Street.
Evans proposes a community gun range in the basement below the gym, with a separate entrance. The Durango Gun Club, which has several hundred members, is being pushed out of their indoor range in Durango, he said. He sees them maybe coming to Bayfield and being a revenue source.
"I know some people don't want a gun range," he said. "Generally it's used by responsible gun owners."
All this is north of an irrigation ditch. "The architect wants the town business for land use planning on the river, so they did a plan for south of the irrigation ditch," Evans said. That has a community room for special events, an outdoor court for pickle ball, which Evans said is the fastest growing sport in the country, and a tennis court or an ice rink.
Evans said the department's Station 1 on Clover Drive is nearing the end of its useful life as a fire station. "The mechanical and heating systems are giving us a lot of trouble," he said. "It's expensive to heat and cool."
It was never designed to have firefighters living there. The living quarters were added more recently. "A modern fire station isolates the apparatus bay from the living quarters, because diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen," Evans said. "Most stations now are coed. They need equal facilities and private dormitories" for men and women. The new Station 5 near Forest Lakes has that.
The South Street location would meet required response times to almost all of Bayfield, he said.
Evans noted the need for meeting space for community groups. The meeting space at Upper Pine's administration building gets a lot of use. "We routinely turn away people wanting to use our meeting room," he said.
"We need meeting space for community meetings, physical training space (for firefighters), a commercial kitchen. We need decontamination areas for blood, a place to clean equipment," Evans said.
He added, "There's a movement to have community health clinics with fire stations." District officials are discussing community para-medicine as part of their strategic plan, with responders who could do house calls for things like making sure people are taking their medications.
All of this would depend on being able to trade the old Station 1 to the school district to use for a bus maintenance barn for the old gym and west building on South Street. Evans indicated he has a couple other locations in mind if this doesn't work out.
