The city of Whitefish is exploring options to build a second fire station on the north side of the Baker Avenue viaduct.

Whitefish City Manager Dana Meeker and Whitefish Fire Chief Cole Hadley have been working with Iron Horse Homeowners Association President Scott Sanderude and Iron Horse Golf Club President Robb Voyles on elements of the station for well over a year.  

They proposed using a piece of land along East Lakeshore Drive that is owned by the golf club. 

"The Iron Horse Golf Club generously has offered to donate the land for a fire station," Meeker said at a reacent City Council meeting. "The HOA has offered to host a capital campaign to generate funds to help with the capital costs of building the station, and possibly the apparatus that would be needed." 

The estimated cost of the building is $6 to $8 million, and the apparatus, a fire engine, ambulance and brush truck add about $2 million. 

"The city really would be on the hook for the staffing, and that's why this is a big decision," she added. 

The cost of 12 firefighters, the minimum number to staff the station, including wages, benefits and all the city’s employer costs would be around $2 million each year. The additional firefighters bring the city’s number from 18 to 30. 

"If it's done in three years, we know the costs will go up some, so that's an equivalent of about 18.35 mills, or 21.18 mills, based on our budgeted estimated taxable value," Meeker said. "It's basically an emergency services voted levy, where we would have that annual cost covered through a property tax levy that's been voted by the community." 

Emergency services and public safety facilities are, generally, planned and constructed before demand exceeds system capacity and reduces the level of service expected by the community, according to the memo prepared by Meeker and Hadley. 

Whitefish has seen significant growth in residential, commercial and visitor activity, especially north of the BNSF railroad corridor where emergency response is dependent upon crossing the Baker Avenue viaduct or one of the limited at-grade railroad crossings, the memo continued. 

Hadley illustrated the need for another fully staffed fire station, telling the Council that since the beginning of this year, the Whitefish Fire Department experienced a total of more than 10 days when "no immediately available emergency response unit was in service due to department resources being committed to other incidents or patient transport." 

"Cole and I ... are really grateful for the work that [the Iron Horse HOA, and the golf club] have done, when they don't really need to," Meeker told the Council. "This is not an Iron Horse issue, this is a city issue of us being able to provide service north of the viaduct, especially as we grow." 

She said it is "really important" that the city have the second station, due to concerns about evacuation routes and emergency service arrival times in neighborhoods to the north. 

Councilor Ben Davis asked about how to present the issue to his constituents who do not live north of the viaduct and may feel they are not affected by the new station. 

"It's not just about north of the viaduct. It will help all calls in the whole city, because we will have a fire response out of the north end and the south end, essentially, of the town, so everybody's response time improves," Meeker said. 

Whitefish Deputy Fire Chief Will Pederson said an additional staffed station "deepens the bench."  

“We're seeing our demand for service being taxed to a point where the fire engine coming out of Station 21 [and] the ambulance coming out of Station 21 are already tied up on an incident and they cannot respond to the next call that's coming in,” Pederson said. 

While the Iron Horse HOA is willing to raise funds for the building, Sanderude said the project requires help from the community.

"While we're willing to do our part on the financial side of it, it's going to take the whole community at that north of the viaduct to pitch in and donate to this thing to get it to happen," Sanderude said. 

Rather than provide direction to staff, the Council decided to discuss the station at its regular meeting on Aug. 3. 

Reporter Julie Engler can be reached at 406-862-3505 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at whitefishpilot.com/support.