SAFFORD — Instead of improving the restrooms at the fire station, the City of Safford is considering a total building remodel, or even construction of a new building.
During Monday’s meeting, the Safford City Council voted unanimously to cancel the expenditure of $30,000 to remodel the fire station’s restrooms and instead spend up to $60,000 to complete a study of renovation versus construction a new building.
“This is starting from scratch,” said Finance Director Troy Bingham. “We’re just going to look at the building and assess what’s currently wrong with the building, what needs to be fixed, what needs to be improved over the next 10 to 15 years, and that’s going to have a price assessed to it.
“At the same time we’re going to come up with a price where, if we built a brand-new station, what would that cost us,” he continued. “We’re going to make that analysis, hopefully by summer if not by fall of this year, and at that point we can develop a CIP (capital improvement program) based on what we’re going to do — are we going to build a new building or are we going to fix the current building?”
Bingham said the city would use the same firm that designed the Safford Police station.
At one time the city considered development of a second fire station at the location that is now the Safford Library Annex. However, the flat rate of calls for service and the fixed service area indicates a single fire station can continue to meet the city’s needs.
