Factious Lealman fire station is two steps closer

LEALMAN -- Four years ago, Lealman fire commissioners first began talking about a new fire station.

On Monday, they signed two of the three contracts necessary to start construction on the $2.2-million building.

The third contract likely will be signed at next month's Fire Commission meeting. It is an agreement to transfer ownership of the current fire station at 4017 56th Ave. N to the Lealman Family Center when the new building is complete. The existing station will undergo about $1-million in renovations before the Family Center moves in.

According to the two agreements concluded Monday, the county gives the money to the Fire Commission and transfers to that group the Lealman Park property where the new station will be built. The decisions did not go smoothly.

Commissioner Bill Adams complained that the contracts had not been available at the group's workshop earlier this month. Lealman fire staff members delivered copies to commissioners' homes on Friday, said Chief Rick Graham.

Adams also said that commissioners were told that plans have been drawn, but "I still haven't seen any. This ain't the way to do business."

Quick money decisions had been an ongoing problem since he'd been on the commission, Adams said. Commissioners are expected to come in, look at proposed expenditures that can be in the hundreds of thousands and "it's like, do it now."

"I would have liked to have a week to mull this over," he said.

Adams later asked about trees that might be in the way of the new station: "Is the county going to allow us to clear out all those trees in there?"

He said he didn't want to build the station around "some 400-year-old oak" or pay hundreds of thousands to move it because "some fool up at the county" wanted it preserved. Despite his concerns, Adams joined in the unanimous vote to sign both contracts.

"I'm comfortable," he said. "I've raised enough questions."

The new fire station has been a long time coming.

Original plans were to combine the station with a community center and sheriff's substation. Those ideas fell by the wayside.

More recently, community activists protested the station's location -- the northeast corner of Lealman Park at 54th Avenue and 37th Street N. Some worried about the destruction of trees on the oak-laden property.

Later protests targeted the spending of $2.2-million on a fire station when Lealman needed so much else.

County Administrator Steve Spratt stepped into the fray earlier this year and made promises to the Lealman area if residents would withdraw their objections to the station.

One guarantee is a tot playground in Lealman Park. That's progressing, said Monte Alfonso, park program coordinator for the county. Dead trees have been removed and an area has been cleared for the equipment, which county officials are ordering.

"By the end of summer, it should be in," Alfonso said.

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