Nearly two years after a consultants’ report showed the Camas-Washougal Fire Department’s downtown Camas-based fire station headquarters would not withstand a major earthquake and should be replaced sooner rather than later, Camas officials are set to consider a contract with a Battle Ground architectural firm that would get the ball rolling on its eventual replacement and possible re-siting.
Fire Chief Cliff Free said replacing the department’s Station 41 headquarters would eventually require at least 51 percent voter approval of a bond measure to pay for the station’s rebuilding and possible relocation away from its current site next to Camas City Hall.
Free said that first, however, the city will need to hire a consultant to help find the best site for the new station and help educate the public about the city’s need and about the pros and cons of the preferred sites.
Free presented the council with a contract for roughly $148,000 with the Battle Ground-based Johansson Wing Architects for the first two phases of the four-phase Station 41 replacement project.
Officials in Camas and Washougal are trying to nail down how to govern fire services — asking the public to approve a regional fire district seems to be the preferred option — but Free said the city would need to replace Station 41 regardless of what happens to the fire department’s governing body.
“There is a question of ‘Why now?’ ” Free said, “and there are still some questions about governance. Regardless … the city of Camas is still going to need a fire station. Period. There needs to be a place to house emergency services.”
Station 43 also cited
The October 2021 Mackenzie consultants’ report said Camas should replace Station 41 in the next two to three years. It also showed that Station 43 in Washougal would need to be replaced in the next five years and that Camas would need to build a new fire station within the next decade to meet the needs of the city’s growing population.
Free said the city’s public outreach would vary depending on the short list of proposed sites for the future Station 41. If the city were to replace the station on its current site, for instance, that wouldn’t have too much impact on traffic patterns in downtown Camas. However, if the preferred site was in a more residential neighborhood, the public would likely want to know how the new station might impact their daily commutes and neighborhood aesthetics, among other possible impacts.
Councilwoman Jennifer Senescu told Free during the July 17 workshop that she disagreed with parts of his proposal.
“I absolutely agree we need a new (Station 41) home,” Senescu said. “But I disagree about how we’re going about this.”
The councilwoman said she did not understand why the proposed consultant contract included $40,000 for public outreach.
“Let’s find the site, do the project kick-off, get an idea of what we’re doing,” Senescu said, adding that she would then want to wait to reach out to the public until after fire department staff and consultants could “give the public something to look at.”
Free responded that he didn’t believe the public outreach included in the contract was trying to sell the public on the bond.
“Our story sells itself,” Free said. “The difference with this is that we have got to tell (the public) that story so they understand. Typically, we get the same five to 10 people who come and address (the council). I need more than five to 10 people. I need to get 51 percent of the voting populace. … I’m not trying to sell them anything, but we need (more) effective tools to educate them than just these meetings.”
