Officials in Hailey will soon learn if the city's residents agree with them on the need for a new fire station proposed for construction in the city's southern Woodside neighborhood.
On Monday, members of the Hailey City Council took the final steps necessary to put a $2.3 million bond request before city voters during the Tuesday, Nov. 7, general election. During the meeting, council members unanimously approved the bond ordinance that sets forth the ballot language voters will consider in November.
Despite the fire station's high estimated cost—a cost that has risen significantly from a 2005 estimate that placed it at $1.2 million—council members appeared determined that now is the right time to ask Hailey voters to approve the bond request.
Council members said that delaying construction on the fire station—a building they said the city urgently needs—could make it even more expensive.
"In another year it will be $3.5 million," Hailey Councilman Don Keirn predicted.
Building the fire station is also a matter of efficiency and safety, Keirn said. Many of the city's firefighters live in Woodside, near where the proposed new fire station would be built. Currently, firefighters have to drive to the city's only fire station at 617 South Third St. before they head out to fires, some of which take place back in Woodside near where they live.
This inefficiency delays response times, Keirn said. "That's a little cumbersome," he said.
Having a new fire station would benefit all residents in the city because Hailey would receive a higher fire insurance rating, Hailey Mayor Susan McBryant noted.
"If it's not done, we know there will be an increase in your fire insurance rating," McBryant said.
In the event that the bond request is approved by Hailey voters, annual bond payments would be structured to match the $190,000 annual bond payment city taxpayers are currently paying to finance Hailey City Hall and the city library. Taxpayers will make the last of those bond payments on Aug. 1, 2008.
Payments on the $2.3 million fire station bond would last for 21 years, Hailey City Clerk Heather Dawson said.
According to documents provided by the city, the difference between the $2.3 million bond request and the estimated $2.8 million cost of the Woodside fire station would be paid for with fund balance reserves in the budget. Other options to pay for the approximately $500,000 difference between the bond request and the total cost of the fire station could come from anticipated local option tax funds and/or government grants.
Also during Monday's meeting, Dawson told the City Council that absentee ballots for city residents will be available by Thursday, Sept. 28, at the Blaine County elections office.
The absentee ballots will include fire station bond request, she said.
