County considers $500,000 project
LISA HOBBS – News Editor
A request by McMinnville for Warren County to relocate its ambulance has led to consideration for a new maintenance building at the Highway Department.
“The city approached me several months ago,” said Warren County Executive Terry Bell, during a Highway and Bridge Committee meeting. “We have an ambulance in Station 2. They want us to move that ambulance out. They say that it’s cramped. Preston [Denny, Warren County EMS Director] agrees that they are pressed for room. We have been on the lookout to try and find a place.”
To keep an ambulance in that area of town, Bell says they began looking for property to construct an ambulance station and found that the prices were between $100,000 to $250,000. Then, the county would have to construct an ambulance station.
Bell and Road Superintendent Josh Roberts began discussions to repurpose the Highway Department’s annex building. Located on the corner of Old Smithville Road and Pike Hill Road. The department uses it for storage and equipment maintenance.
“Josh actually needs a maintenance building here at the Highway Department,” said Bell. “I’ve asked Josh if he’d be willing to let the ambulance go into the annex building, if we built him a maintenance building down here.”
Roberts spoke favorably of the idea.
“This would be huge for the Highway Department, because in this maintenance building, we would have a new salt bin constructed. That’s something that’s desperately needed here at the Highway Department. I don’t know if you’ve seen our salt bin. It might hold 100 tons, and one side is completely out of commission. This would take care of that issue for us, if passed.”
Roberts says the project would be a 60-by-90 building with a 24-foot ceiling. The salt bin would be behind the building and would be 30-by-40 and would hold roughly 500 tons of salt.
“This would be huge for us. We do not have the room to be prepared for a winter storm at the highway department. I worked here nine years prior to running for office. When a winter storm hits here, we are not prepared at all. We have 100 tons of salt, and we can go through that in one day. If we can’t get additional salt, we sit here and hope that it turns to slush, so we can plow it. We are set up well for plowing, but we are not set up to salt roads. We have to go out on Shelbyville Road and salt curves and hills and that’s it. With this, we would be able to salt from stop sign to stop sign, which is huge. I’d like to see that done.”
Actual construction costs will not be known until the county bids the project out. However, Roberts stated that he believes the project could be completed for $420,000, with some cost saving measures such as the department pouring the concrete.
To repurpose the annex building so that it could be used by the ambulance service, Bell added an additional $50,000 on top of that number.
“He’s got to have electrical bay doors put in, a bathroom, a shower, and we’ve got to do some type of living quarters,” Bell stated. “Preston says some of his men can help with that, but some of it we will have to hire out. To make this work, I think the county would have to set aside half a million dollars. So, $500,000.”
Roberts added, “I told Terry that I would put a four-way stop up there. I feel like it’s needed regardless. We would do that out of our budget. Terry also asked, if the commission approves this, would we put in an exit to Pike Hill Road and I told him that we would supply the tile, the rock and we would build them an exit/entrance off of Pike Hill.”
Roberts requested that the county allow the Highway Department to keep tiles in a small corner of the property.
Commissioner Gary Prater asked of Commissioner Scott Rubley how the county could come up with $500,000, to which Rubley commented, “I’m thinking fundraiser, Gary.” Someone added, “Maybe a fish fry.”
After the laughter subsided, Rubley stated that the Budget and Finance Committee would meet to consider funding options.
Highway and Bridge Committee members gave approval for the plan. The final decision will be in the hands of Warren County Commission members.
Warren County Way reached out to McMinnville Fire Chief Marty White for additional information regarding the need to relocate the ambulance.
“We have six firefighters at Station 1 and four firefighters at Station 2 each shift. I would like to move one firefighter from Station 1 to Station 2 to staff five at each station. This way, there would be a minimum of three firefighters assigned to a suppression apparatus at all times, even if two firefighters respond to a medical call in an SUV. This would increase safety for both the public and firefighters. The living quarters at Station 2 is at capacity with six personnel there now, four firefighters and two EMS personnel. Additionally, when our new fire engine arrived last September, we decommissioned Engine 7. Engine 7 was a reserve engine. Engine 8 was moved to Station 2 as a reserve engine. Engine 8 is longer truck and shares the same apparatus bay as the ambulance. There are only a few inches between the ambulance and the fire engine,” White stated.