By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The future site of a proposed 4th fire station for Copperas Cove could be used for something else in the future.
At its April 7 workshop, the Copperas Cove city council held a discussion with the topic of the future fire station.
In 2022, the City of Copperas Cove purchased the former Heart of Texas Credit Union site at 1001 MLK Jr. Dr. for a possible 4th fire station for the city.
The property has Business 190 frontage as its rear access, which is why its location was considered.
City Manager Ryan Haverlah said the City received a report from its financial advisor on March 24, stating the city had “plenty of capacity” to issue sufficient debt to provide the funding for any projects that city council had on its capital improvement plan.
In 2013, Copperas Cove voters approved a proposition on the ballot for construction of a new fire station in the amount of $6 million. However, nothing has moved forward on a 4th fire station, even with the purchase of the MLK Jr. property about four years ago.
“The reason we haven’t done the capital improvement for this building is once it is done, we need to staff that facility. Staffing that facility is the constraint that we have of making this fire station number four,” Haverlah.
He said the City does not have the financial resources and isn’t seeing sufficient growth in tax revenue to bring on 12 new fire professionals and EMS professionals needed to staff Fire Station 4.
He said the fire department has done work on the building for it to obtain a certificate of occupancy and it has been used for training and internal events but is not in active daily use.
Havlerah asked the council if they thought the city should do a feasibility study on the facility and he recommended two directions for that study, if the council agreed.
The first direction would be to consider converting the property into the 4th fire station and what the cost would be. When the City purchased the property, the idea was that it would cost less to convert it than to build a brand-new facility.
The second option, Haverlah said, would be to consider converting it to the City’s Utility Administration building. The current building is a smaller building than the MLK Jr. property.
“We as a community have grown. We have needed to add staff to Utility Administration within our customer service departments, our billing division, as well as meter technicians,” Haverlah said.
“Parking is greatly constrained, as well as vehicular movements at that location, and with the staff that we’ve added, the ability to work in that building has caused the utility administration team to become very creative and how they function efficiently. Our community is not stopping in terms of growth and we are continuing to grow. We have almost 10,000 planned residential units within the city in different development stages. They’re not all going to be built tomorrow. They won’t be built over the next 10 years, but there are plans to build those.
“As we continue to grow in our community, this department will need to continue to expand. We only have one drive-through window and that one drive-through window is kind of constrained in terms of vehicular movements.”
The current property on South Main Street also has a retaining wall that is failing, and the engineering estimate to repair it is $300,000, he added.
The council concurred with the City moving forward with a study on the use of that property.
During the council’s regular meeting held April 7, the council also approved:
New and revised standards of care for the City’s Youth Recreation Program, where it concerns the summer program.
The First Amendment to the agreement with Mishelle Morrison for concession operation at the Hills of Cove Golf Course Pro Shop.
A resolution for the city to join with the State of Texas as a party in the National and Texas Opioid Settlement Agreements.
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