ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of stories regarding the May 19 joint meeting between the Liberal City Commission and Seward County Commission to discuss a possible buyout of the county’s portion of the 15th Street fire station. Today’s story talks about an offer from the city commission to buy out the county’s portion.
A few final thoughts came from city and county staff before Liberal city commissioners put an offer on the board to buy Seward County’s portion of the 15th Street fire station at the May 19 joint commission meeting.
While concerns had been raised about consolidating the county and city fire departments in the station, Liberal Fire Chief Kelly Kirk also said cases of mutual aid could raise issues.
“If (Seward County Fire Chief Andrew Barkley) got a big one and calls for mutual aid, my guys are farmed out around the city where they’re supposed to be stationed for our standard coverage,” he said. “I’m on the phone and radios calling guys back in to see if we’re able to respond. It’s a delay for me to respond with him. We’ve got to pull them back together and send them back, deploy them and bring them back in.”
Like others at the meeting, city commissioner Ron Warren said putting the two departments together in one building did not make sense.
“We need to come up with a number, and whether you use it on 18th Street or build another building, it shouldn’t matter to us,” he said. “It’s more important we come up with a number that works for both of us.”
Seward County Administrator April Warden said an offer from the city would not pay for other costs away from buying the county’s portion of the station.
“That’s just a number for the addition,” she said. “It doesn’t include your architecture fees and any overrun as you get into the project,” she said.
Kirk said both fire departments have grown substantially, and it is likely the Liberal Fire Department, like the Seward County Fire Department already has, will begin again hiring female firefighters.
“We’ve had them in the past,” he said. “Right now, we have no way to accomodate them in the station. Office space, storage space and dorm space for full-time firefighters has become an even bigger issue with putting both fire departments back together.”
County commissioner Todd Stanton said the two boards need to find acceptable numbers for the buyout, and he added Clause 13 in the 2007 memorandum of understanding, which says the county has the first right of refusal should the city opt to sell the station in the future, be kept in the agreement.
Prior to Clause 13, Clause 12 talks about termination of the agreement, which is allowed by either the city or the county, and upon the termination, the city would pay the county 40 percent of the appraised value of the building. That number, Stanton said, should be taken into account when considering Clause 13.
City commissioner Jeff Parsons said the discussion basically boils down to building space, and city leaders are not making it their job to equip or tell the county how to run its fire department.
“If you’re talking about replacing the space you’d used in the past, I would think something practical would be the way I’d want to look at it,” he said.
Stanton asked what the practicalities were of expanding the 15th Street station to encompass the four fire trucks the county has currently in the station.
“That’s about all the expansion that could occur is for four trucks,” he said.
Mayor Jose Lara said if the county can expand for $400,000 or less, this would be what the city would pay, but he said he would not go beyond $500,000.
Parsons said he was not looking for anything fancy, but rather practical and useful for the county’s use.
“Let’s think of this as being practical and no nonsense to replace the space they’ve used in the past and gives us that additional space back,” he said.
County commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott said whatever agreement was reached would benefit the city too because they would be getting half of the building that now primarily houses the LFD.
“You’re going to get additional offices also,” she said.
Liberal Vice Mayor Matt Landry said strong arming a number is not going to help either side.
“All we’re going to do is lock horns at end of the day, and 20 years from now, this conversation’s still going to be happening,” he said. “A realistic aspect is ultimately the thing we’re trying to get to.”
Sutherland-Abbott said the county could get an estimate on additional office space, as well as what they are entitled to from the city’s fire department and what room the county has for additional bays at the 18th Street fire station if this is the direction the city wanted to go.
City commissioners then went into a brief executive session to discuss a possible offer, and when the meeting returned to regular session, Lara announced the city’s offer.
“We will offer $500,000 from the 1-cent sales tax with no right of first refusal at any percentage and pending an official motion to be reviewed by our attorney at the next city commission meeting,” he said. “It gives us a clean break.”
As much of the county commission believed, County Counsel Nathan Foreman advised the board to get an appraisal.
“We’ve got an offer of $500,000, and the basis is we’re agreeing otherwise apparently to be neighborly or help the taxpayer,” he said. “That makes sense, but as far as the county, in my perspective, to make sure you’re doing your due diligence, I’d advise you get the appraisal so you know where you’re at.”
However, county commissioner Presephoni Fuller questioned the need for an appraisal.
“What happens if the appraisal goes up with this offer?” she said. “Is this a negotiable offer, or is this a one-time deal? They want a clean break. We want to sell this house. We want to sell this property and move on. If we continue to go back and forth, we’re going to be here another year talking about the same thing. We need to make decisions. How much is the appraisal going to change the value?”
Even with the requested removal of Clause 13, Fuller appeared to want to accept the offer.
“We have the information sitting before us, and I understand you taking Clause 13 out,” she said. “They’re wanting a clean slate. Let’s be done with this so we can move forward.”
City commissioner Ron Warren said he believed the offer was a realistic one.
“Something we’re forgetting is we can spend $450,000, add on to the building and stay there, but that doesn’t help any of what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re trying to help the community, help the county. We’ve come up with a realistic number to make it feasible for you guys to gain your space back and us not having to come up with more in reality.”
Sutherland-Abbott, though, believed without Clause 13, the offer was not fair to the county.
“If at a later date, you guys sell it and if we maintained that clause, we would get some money where we potentially could build a fire station where we need it out in the county where you guys would reap the benefits of all the money of the appraisal,” she said. “How fair is $500,000 out of $2 million or $3 million?”
Lara argued an appraisal only gets the two groups back to the original starting point, and Landry agreed.
“The appraisal you’re going to spend money on is going to end up in the same conversation,” Landry said.
Foreman said the default provision of the MOU is the appraised value, and the other component is Clause 13, which was negotiated into the agreement.
“Leverage wise, you guys have an agreement,” he said. “If we’re going to agree to agree otherwise, that’s fine, but from the county’s perspective, you need to know what you would be getting if you honored the terms of the agreement.”
Lara said the right of first refusal and its adjoining 40 percent paid to the county will likely stay in place for at least 20 years, a time at which none of the city and county leaders currently in place will be in place.
“They’ll have to find this out at that time,” he said.
Foreman, though, said past evidence shows how critical the role of Clause 13 could be in the future.
“The right of first refusal right now sitting here, we’re saying that building will never sell, but I bet in 1980, no one ever saw that corner of Kansas in the Walgreens,” he said.
While some argued fire stations typically only last as much as 50 years, Barkley did say some last even longer.
“Historically in the fire service, there’s fire stations in service today that were built in 1890 because of their location,” he said. “They don’t have the cost to build a brand new one at that spot, so they’re still using buildings that are 100 years old.”
Fuller inquired as to how long the offer will remain on the table.
“Is this 15 days, 30 days?” she said. “How long are you giving the county to get an appraisal?”
Parsons said city commissioners tried to come up with a fair number for the county.
“We’re not going to yank it off the table in 45 days,” he said. “I want to make sure we have that verbally. We sit down and put our heads together and say this is what we think helps you, helps us. I don’t see us running away from this.”
County commission chairman Scott Carr said the county should get an appraisal before accepting any offer.
Warden said she would work with City Manager Scarlette Diseker, who was scheduled to reach out to appraiser Evan Winchester to get a timeframe for an appraisal.
Fuller praised the work of all involved in the process.
“I want to thank the city and the two fire chiefs for putting their heads together and helping us move forward,” she said. “We need to move forward. This is what we need to do and continue to protect our citizens. It’s not going to be something done overnight, but it can’t be another 40 years trying to make a decision.”
