Town to close its fire station
Ross will no longer have a fire station under a $14.6 million plan to renovate the town’s government buildings.
The Town Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve the plan, which calls for demolishing the aging town headquarters on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and rebuilding the administrative offices, police station and ambulance center.
The council decided not to rebuild the fire station, which is part of the existing complex, after the town surveyed residents on whether they would be willing to pay for the construction.
“I want to keep the fire station, but the survey shows that we don’t have the money,” said Councilman Beach Kuhl.
The town’s 93-year-old government buildings are in such poor shape that it would cost less to rebuild than remodel them, according to Town Manager Joe Chinn. The town plans to seek a bond measure to pay for the new center.
Early estimates for the project indicated it would cost about $28.4 million to reconstruct all of the buildings in the complex. But the cost would be cut nearly in half if the town doesn’t include a fire station at the new center.
Ross shares firefighting services with Fairfax, San Anselmo and Sleepy Hollow through the Ross Valley Fire Department, which has a station in each of those areas.
Without a fire station in Ross, firefighters responding to the town’s service calls would come from the San Anselmo station, which is 1.1 miles from Ross Town Hall, or from the Kentfield station, which is 0.7 miles away, according to Ross Valley fire Chief Jason Weber. It would take firefighters an average of two extra minutes to reach a residence in the town, a recent department study found. That would bring the average response time for service calls up from just under eight minutes to just under 10 minutes, according to the study.
The town’s survey, conducted in December, asked whether residents would be willing to pay the additional $13.8 million expense to keep a fire station in town.
The poll garnered responses from 336 people and 98% of them said they lived in Ross. Only 33% said they would be willing to pay for the fire station. On the other hand, 63% said they would pay to keep a police station, administrative building and ambulance bay in town.