Officials from Durango Fire Protection District, including its board members, met with City Council and city staff members this week in an effort to bridge a gap in communication about the sale of the Durango School District 9-R Administration Building as a potential fire station.
Fire Chief Hal Doughty began the meeting detailing DFPD’s five-year search for a property that could fit the needs of the district.
“Across the course of the last five years of trying to find an adequate replacement for the downtown fire station, we think that we looked at 32 sites,” Doughty said.
Doughty mentioned working extensively with the city on a 1½-acre property on Camino del Rio and College Drive that he said fell through because council agreed with community members that the property could serve a better use.
“It was incredibly disappointing as you can imagine,” Doughty said.
After attempting to work with the city on a number of potential sites and having them fall through, Doughty said it had become clear to the DFPD and its board that the city had its own facility needs and capital projects.
“We decided that it was upon us, the fire district, to provide for a future location for us, the fire district,” he said.
City Council members said they have been left with little to say to constituents about what’s happening with the sale, because those details are largely between the school district and the fire department.
“I think that the best thing that can be done is to be totally clear, and totally above-board,” said Durango Mayor Kim Baxter. “The community has asked many times for the city to have a community conversation, but we can’t help them at this point. We know nothing about your plans.”
In a number of public outreach events, Doughty has shared conceptual ideas about development projects that might need to be done to make the 9-R Administration Building a feasible fire station. Doughty assured council and city staff members that an architect is working on a site plan, but the fire district will not be finalizing any sort of plans until after the sale.
With many site options falling through during the search for a new site, Doughty is waiting until the sale goes through and a site is secured before running the necessary tests and studies required to make changes to the property.
“We’re not going to have our architect start spending billable hours for us until we own the property,” he said.
Councilors said they’ve been bombarded with phone calls and emails about the sale of the 9-R building that they don’t have answers to because they have no authority over the sale.
Fire district board members suggested councilors forward questions to them.
“I apologize to everyone of you that’s being bombarded by the public right now,” Doughty said.
The city and the fire district committed to working together moving forward, and plan on irregular monthly meetings to share information.
njohnson@durangoherald.com
