PORT TOWNSEND — East Jefferson Fire-Rescue and Port of Port Townsend officials are one step closer to building a new fire station at Jefferson County International Airport, a project proposed in June 2007 that stalled after the fire chief left for a new job.
District officials have architectural design plans for the more than 16,000-square-foot facility planned on part of 24 acres of port land south of the airport’s runways. The cost is estimated at $2.6 million.
The project, which would provide quick airport fire fighting response time, would put additional emergency response capability near the county’s Kala Point and the Tri-Area of Chimacum, Port Hadlock, Irondale and the Four Corners/West Discovery Bay communities.
As proposed by former fire Chief Mike Mingle in June 2007, the new station would include administrative offices.
Emergency vehicle access-only roads leading to state highways 19 and 20, and south to Four Corners Road are planned, with a Four Corners non-emergency road to the station, port officials said.
Port Deputy Director Jim Pivarnik presented the design plans by Bellevue-based Lawhead Architects at a port commissioners meeting on Wednesday.
The port paid $10,000 for the plans and the East Jefferson Fire-Rescue pitched in $25,000 for the exterior and interior plans.
“Obviously, with Chief Mingee gone, there has been a lack of enthusiasm” for the project, Pivarnik said, adding that port officials hope the new fire chief will move it forward again.
Mingee’s successor
The East Jefferson Fire-Rescue commissioners are in negoitations with the person they hope will become Mingee’s successor.
Commissioners have not released the candidate’s name.
Mingee left in January to become the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District chief in Santa Barbara County, Calif.
As proposed, Fire-Rescue administrative offices at Lawrence and Harris streets in uptown Port Townsend would be moved to the airport station, and the Chimacum fire station on Rhody Drive would be closed down or just used by volunteers.
East Jefferson Fire-Rescue, also known as Jefferson County Fire Protection District No. 1, has consolidated with two other districts serving the Tri-Area and Cape George to form one fire service agency.
East Jefferson Fire Rescue serves the incorporated City of Port Townsend and the unincorporated Jefferson County communities of Cape George, Chimacum, Irondale, Kala Point, Marrowstone Island and Port Hadlock.
The port could offer about two acres south of the center of the airport runway, which already has an accessway leading to it from Four Corners Road, which runs between highways 19 and 20.
The land is owned by the Federal Aviation Administration, and would have to be acquired for port and fire district use.
While the airport itself is mainly funded through FAA grants, the FAA was unlikely to fund the fire station.
Port Executive Director Larry Crockett said the airport site is “about as safe a place as we have in Jefferson County,” and could be a site where other emergency services, including air ambulance helicopter service, Airlift Northwest, could establish a North Olympic Peninsula launch site.
Crockett said organizations, including the food bank, have inquired about warehouse space in the building.
Crockett envisions the potential of using the facility for emergency and rescue operations, even for the relocation of port administrative offices if a disaster made such a necessary.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsula dailynews.com.
