MOLINE, Ill. — The City of Moline is in the early stages of discussing the replacement of its Central Fire Station. The city council met Tuesday night, March 15 to hear why a replacement is necessary at this point and options to renovate or demolish and build a new one.
Central Fire was built in 1972 and was set to be either renovated or demolished in 2006 when the new police station was built. However, there wasn't enough money in the budget to do both.
Conditions have since deteriorated further, City Administrator Bob Vitas and Fleet and Facilities Manager Sarah Mark explained to the council.
"For those of you who have seen it, it could use a little bit of love," Mark said. "It hasn't had the attention that it needs to maintain the building to where it really could be."
She said, based on her research, much of the electrical engineering, plumbing and windows are original and need to be replaced.
The city was given an estimate of at least $4 million needed for a new HVAC system and electrical components in 2006. Today, that estimate would be well over $5 million.
"Things have been identified, but we haven't been able to follow up and finish these projects," Mark said.
Lead has been found in parts of the building, rendering those areas unusable. Paint is coming off the walls, and there's also water damage. Mark pointed out pictures of interior doors that have become so rusted they're falling apart.
She also pointed out that firefighters don't currently have lockers to keep their gear in.
"The fire station was probably an issue that I didn't expect, but we can't ignore it," Vitas said. "I can't see spending more money on a study to go in and decide what to do. I mean when you have a $4.1 million problem from 2006 that went unaddressed, what will someone tell us that we don't already know? It's going to really come down to the question of do we replace it, when do we replace it. How do we finance that?"
The city council did not make a decision Tuesday night, but Third Ward Alderman Mike Wendt said his gut feeling is "we probably need to build a new fire station."
Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati said moving forward, the city will be having discussions with the fire department about what it would like to see happen with Central Fire. The city will also be conducting a study to determine the best location for a new station.
Given these are such preliminary discussions, there are no specific estimates for how much the project would cost.
Vitas said possible funding sources include the general obligation bond and general fund excess reserves. State grants are also a possibility, he said.