The temporary circus-like tents housing Morro Bay's fire engines won't come down until next spring at the earliest, even as the city has completed the planning process for a new permanent garage.
Morro Bay's fire station was damaged in the Dec. 22, 2003, San Simeon Earthquake. So fire Chief Mike Pond is looking forward to the permanent vehicle bay -- the department's fire trucks will have been in tents for two years by the time it's built.
The tents have been problematic for the station, which is one of the busiest in the county -- rivaled only by Arroyo Grande.
They're subject to blowing off and ripping, power failures, lead to rust on the equipment and are a farther way for firefighters to run to while responding to an emergency.
"Using temporary facilities permanently for 18 months is going to create some difficulties," Pond said.
Though the garage on Harbor Street was damaged in the magnitude-6.5 temblor, a post-earthquake evaluation revealed that many problems were pre-existing.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency therefore would not fund its repair. A return to conditions before the earthquake would still have been unsafe for the department to use.
A grant from the state Office of Emergency Services will provide the $500,000 needed to renovate the garage, demolishing the old one and building the first of two phases to repair the station.
In the second phase, the department's offices, training room and living quarters will be redone, Pond said.
Another plan is under way to revitalize a small station on Bonita Street in north Morro Bay, which would cost about $256,000 to remodel and $290,000 for staffing in the first year.
Pond said the department applied for a three-year, $1.5 million federal grant to redo the station, but was approved for $500,000 in the first year.
"It's bittersweet," Pond said. "We'll have to re-evaluate what we can do in a phased project out there with that $500,000, knowing there's no guarantee we'll get the other million."
The city will likely be examining how to fund the extra station, probably through a vote of property owners to form an assessment district.
An informal survey showed that residents value their fire department, but don't necessarily want to pay more money for it.
Distributed by the Associated Press
