Roseville Council Supports Selling Bonds For New Fire Station

After years of having three fire stations, Roseville officials plan to consolidate the city’s firefighters at a single station on city land adjacent to Roseville City Hall.

Mold and physical deterioration at two stations were detailed by Roseville Fire Chief Tim O’Neill at this week's City Council meeting, when the Council voted to move ahead with plans to sell $8 million in bonds to help pay for the consolidated station.

Low bond rates and construction costs were major reasons that department and most Council members pushed for moving ahead with the project. “We might be able to save 10 percent (on construction costs) than if you waited a year,” said O’Neill.

Selling the bonds will boost property taxes on a $215,000 Roseville home by $580 over 20 years to fund the station’s construction, according to city papers.

Council Members Tammy McGehee and Tammy Pust opposed selling the bonds without a public referendum. McGehee said, “I’m feeling uncomfortable that we don’t have a third-party view” of the plan to consolidate on Roseville’s City Hall campus.

O’Neill replied that the access of another prospective site to Highway 36 will be cut off, slowing speedy access to fires, and that the city already owns the land where the single station will stand.

The bond sale marks the first time the fire department has ever asked Roseville residents to pay for a new fire station. O’Neill said his department plans to hire an architect soon to design the new station, and added that city firefighters are allowed to stay in only one of three buildings because of mold.

McGehee and Pust emphasized they are not opposed to building more modern quarters for the fire department, and that they just wanted voters to participate in the decision to sell bonds to finance its construction.

“I’m very sorry that you’re having to live in those moldy conditions,” McGehee told O’Neill during the Council meeting.

Mayor Dan Roe said past city councils have not paid enough attention to physical conditions at the city’s fire stations. “The longer you wait to solve these problems, the worse the problem is going to get,” Roe said.