Bellaire gives OK to new fire station

Bellaire firefighters will soon have a $4.25 million new home, with their existing one set to be torn down as early as this week. The Bellaire City Council, in a 6-1 vote, accepted the proposal for a new fire station on Nov. 16, voting to approve the base construction price with some required equipment, such as a generator run on liquid natural gas, and $128,249 in optional on-site drainage.

The new station, to be roughly 16,000 square feet, will stand at the corner of Jesamine and South Rice streets, where the current 10,000-square-foot structure, built in 1955, stands.

“At some point you’ve got to pick a lane and make your decision and get it built,” Mayor Cindy Siegel said in an interview, adding that more revisions to the plans would cost more money. “To do anything less would be in violation of what the voters wanted.”

Bellaire voters approved a bond issue in 2005 that provided the funds for construction of several projects, including the new fire station.

The fire department is now operating from a space Chevron wasn’t using in its Bellaire facility, City Manager Bernie Satterwhite said, under a $1 lease. The department spent $200,000 to make the facility a suitable fire station, he said, adding that construction of the new station will take about a year.

The lone vote in opposition to the project was Councilman Pat McLaughan, a former volunteer fire fighter, who acknowledged the need for a new facility but said it should be smaller than the one proposed. The city has seen no population growth and no increase in fire calls, he said, so the increase is not justified.

“You don’t want to build the same facility in 2009 that was there in 1950,” Siegel said. “Technology, equipment, those needs are different today than they were in 1950.”

The amendment to add $128,000 in additional drainage passed in a 4-3 vote, with council members Will Hickman, Peggy Faulk and Phil Nauert against.

The amendment calls for four pipes to be laid under the driveway of the station to detain water before it enters the city sewers. The commercial building would have complied with city ordinances without the additional pipes, Satterwhite said, but the pipes allow the structure to meet residential drainage codes.

Residential drainage ordinances require that no “fill” be added to a property. Because the station will be placed on a larger foundation, additional water will be displaced. That is offset by the additional pipes, Satterwhite said.

Siegel said among citizens’ chief concerns is flooding, so acting to mitigate that in the residential area around the station was “being a good neighbor.”

“We have high expectations as it relates to our residents that are building new homes, and I think we should hold ourselves to the same standard in terms of trying to improve drainage in the area,” she said.
By Mike Morris in The Houston Chronicle