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Meeting set Tuesday What : Community meeting to see the proposed reconstruction of Fire Station No. 1 When : 7 p.m. Tuesday Where : The Siskiyou Boulevard fire station. There will also be a public hearing before the council on the reconstruction and the bond measure at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 6, at the council's regularly scheduled meeting in the Civic Center. City OKs fire station reconstruction May make November ballot By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- At a meeting Thursday, city officials reviewed a scaled-down revision of the fire station reconstruction and pronounced it good. They expect the $3.1 million 13,000-square-foot building to be on the November ballot as a bond measure. "This is a long time coming," said Ashland Fire Chief Keith Woodley. "This has been incubating since 1983 and we are about ready to give birth here, and we are pretty excited about that." Both a community meeting at the fire station and a public hearing are planned before the council decides whether to put the measure on the ballot. Discussion about reconstructing the 1947 fire station at 455 Siskiyou Blvd. began in 1983. The current station allows carbon monoxide into the living quarters, lacks an infectious disease room for safe cleaning of equipment contaminated by body fluids, doesn't have space for women, regularly floods and has electrical outages. "It's horrible the way it is," said Mayor Cathy Shaw. "Obviously the fire station has been in desperate need for years -- there are egregious problems there." Council members also appreciated that the new design will allow better vision for drivers at the intersection where the fire station is located. Originally, the council was looking at a $4.8 million project but scaled that down to Thursday's design. The design is 7,600 square feet larger than the current building and will provide office, dormitory, garage and storage space for the fire department. The design requires the city to buy adjacent commercial property that includes the Blue Mountain Cafe. One of the owners of that property, Alan Kaufman, met with city officials Thursday afternoon to discuss the possible acquisition. "It was a real gentleman's agreement that it was a private meeting," Kaufman said. "But it was a good meeting and we'll see what happens." The owner of the Blue Mountain, who leases his building, was concerned about the developments. "I'm not happy about this," he said. "It is so much stress I don't need." But he said if he loses the building he is committed to rebuilding Blue Mountain somewhere else. He just doesn't know if and how he will be compensated for the eight years he's put into his enterprise. "I just have hundreds and hundreds of loyal customers and I want to assure them I will try to keep Blue Mountain going," he said. "But I'm in the dark and trying to figure out how I can make it work." City Administrator Mike Freeman said the city has until November to come up with an agreement with the property owner for the site. If they don't get an agreement, the bond measure would not go on the ballot. The $3.1 million cost includes the price of the property acquisition. The bond measure will result in an assessment of about 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. On a $100,000 house, the additional cost on a homeowner's property tax bill would be about $25 a year. The November ballot will also include a bond measure for a $5.9 million addition and renovation to the library, across the street from the fire station. The council will consider in July whether to couple the measures or place them on the ballot separately. The city's other fire station, at 1860 Ashland St., also will need renovation in the future. But Woodley said that will be a smaller project because there are no administrative offices there. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA