For the week of Nov 28 - Dec 4, 2001

Fire station 
with no water

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A fire station without water? A fire station without a toilet? A handshake agreement to get some? A public building not required to conform to standards that uniformly apply to every other building in the county?

That’s what was proposed to the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission and that’s almost what it approved.

The Carey Rural Fire District will build a waterless metal garage in Gannett for a couple of fire trucks. The trucks will provide badly needed fire protection for the growing rural area.

The need, however, was no excuse for a shoddy proposal from the fire district nor the shoddy review by the P&Z.

Chairman Suzanne Orb questioned how well a fire station could function without water. Good question.

She was told the district has a verbal agreement with a local rancher to provide water. She asked that the fire district provide a written agreement, but her P&Z colleagues disagreed.

One P&Z member even suggested that the building should not be subject to any P&Z scrutiny at all.

Ultimately, the P&Z tweaked a few details, including light shields and landscaping, but did nothing about the building’s major deficiencies.

Can approval of subdivisions full of homes without indoor plumbing be far behind? Will bucket brigades from a neighbor’s faucet become the standard for fire protection when the parties to the verbal agreement are nowhere to be found? Will public buildings be exempted from requirements private ones must meet?

The P&Z needs to do its homework. The public needs no repeat of this stunningly awful performance.

 

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