These buildings make Kennewick safer. But can the city find $13 million?

Kennewick’s fire department is facing two pressing issues.

While south Kennewick has been booming, two of the city’s station houses are aging beyond repair.

City officials have the daunting task of finding the money to pay for two new fire stations and also renovate the city’s oldest station — projects that carry an estimated $13.2 million price tag.

The city’s 2017 six-year plan for buildings and equipment included replacing the 40-year-old station on Grandridge Boulevard, building a new station in the Southridge area, and renovating the city’s oldest station on Auburn Street.

Whether the three projects will make it into the next biennial budget is anyone’s guess.

Being included in the city’s plans only guarantees that the station houses are a priority. It doesn’t mean they will even end up in the preliminary budget on Nov. 1.

Why new stations?

When Kennewick officials opened Station 5 in 2016 on South Kellogg Street and West 10th Avenue, it was the first new station in the city since it rolled open the doors to it’s 27th Avenue building in 1996.

Over those same 20 years, the city added 30,000 people and turned the dusty wild land in southern and western Kennewick into some of the fastest growing developments in the city.

In its first full year of use, Station 5’s firefighters and paramedics responded to more than 2,000 calls, comparable to any of the other stations in the city, according to city reports.

The south Kennewick neighborhoods added 100 new residential lots in 2017, in addition to four housing developments underway, according to the Tri-Cities Business Journal.

“That is where our growth is occurring,” said Evelyn Lusignan, spokeswoman for the city.

And that is where the new station would go. Plans put it near Bob Olson Parkway close to Southridge Boulevard.

While the council has set it as a priority, the new station faces another hurdle. The fire department needs to add 12 new firefighters to staff it, which would add an estimated $2.2 million to the department’s two-year budget if it goes into service in 2019.

This is one of the questions Mayor Don Britain is waiting for the staff to answer when they present plans to him at the end of October.

“This is why we have top staff at the city, so they can tell us what we can afford now,” he said.

The issues surrounding Station 3 are more complicated. The 40-year-old station, next to the Benton County Justice Center, is a consistent drain on city money, Lusignan said. There have been problems with the roof, doors and plumbing.

“It’s past its life span,” she said. “It’s more cost-effective to build a new building and have it be modern.”

This is added to the Port of Kennewick’s plans for Vista Field. The 103-acre former airfield near the Three Rivers Convention Center is being developed into a new town center.

As part of the plan, the city would move Station 3 closer to the development, placing it across the street from the convention center on Grandridge Boulevard.

“We did review this proposed location with the port, and they were very favorable to that proposed location,” she said.

While the older station 1 also needs repairs, it’s issues can fixed by renovating the building rather than rebuilding it, city officials said.

The next steps

Fire officials are expected to provide an update to the city council as the time for the preliminary budget draws closer. City officials are still hammering out the estimated costs as well as the revenue before a final plan is presented.

If the city moves forward, the projects would be paid for with bonds.

More than a thousand people offered their opinions of what the city’s priorities should be, and while public safety ranked high, so did safe drinking water and street maintenance.

“We have to balance between these priorities,” Lusignan said. “The budget process is very complex.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2018 at 1:45 PM.