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Zephyrhills Firehouse Won't Be Replaced

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 19, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - The walls are stained with mold. The roof leaks. Sheetrock and baseboards have been cut away 3 feet from the floor, marking the height where floodwaters reached several months ago, nearly engulfing the downtown firehouse.

The 50-year-old station on Sixth Avenue was supposed to have been decommissioned next year. City officials had planned to demolish the firehouse at Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street and build one with living quarters and office space.

But property tax reforms and a loss of ad valorem revenue put the kibosh on that.

Now, with limited funds, city officials are faced with renovating the dilapidated building.

Chief Keith Williams, who took over the department about two years ago, is working on a proposal to refurbish the Kennedy-era station. He doesn't know where to begin.

"It's like putting a new saddle on an old horse," Williams said.

The station renovations could get expensive.

Before they begin working on the firehouse, city officials must come up with a plan to end flooding in the neighborhood. That could cost the city more than $1.5 million.

Then there's the issue of the building itself, which will need renovations and upgrades to make it hurricane-resistant and bring the structure up to state fire codes.

Cramped living quarters are another issue. Before the station was closed, firefighters and paramedics slept in the same dark-paneled room with no dividers between beds.

"The fact is, right now, we just don't know how much it's going to cost," Williams said.

One month ago, the story was much different.

After getting approval from council members, Williams had come up with a prospective piece of property and a rough proposal to replace the city's flood-prone firehouse.

His proposal was to build a two-story, 10,400-square-foot station on Seventh Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, in the heart of downtown. Williams requested the purchase of a 1-acre property - three undeveloped parcels - for $240,000.

Building a firehouse would cost $1.7 million, city officials estimated. Money would be available from grants and other sources, including the city's $3.5 million reserve fund.

But council members said they can't justify spending that amount.

"We all want a new fire station," Mayor Cliff McDuffie said recently. "But not now."

The Sixth Avenue station flooded in January during a rainstorm. Since then, firefighters have been working from the World War II Barracks Museum at the municipal airport.

While city officials worked on the design and financing for the new station, firefighters were supposed to have moved into the Aero Center, a large hangar at the airport, where the city is renting space for about $800 a month. But that never happened.

"We couldn't afford it," City Manager Steve Spina said. "The rent was too high."

The renovation plans come at a time when the city is struggling to plug major budget shortfalls caused by a loss of property tax revenue and depreciating housing values.

Preliminary estimates indicate the city could lose more than $460,000 next fiscal year as the result of Amendment 1, the tax-relief measure that voters statewide approved in January.

Adding to the concerns of firefighters is talk of turning over the city's district to Pasco County Fire Rescue to save money. Union officials call that a "horrible" idea.

"The county doesn't want us," said Shawn Baptist, the city's fire union representative.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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