Matthew Bennett
Daily Times-Call, Longmont, Colo.
(TNS)
It has been several months since firefighters rushed out of Longmont’s old Fire Station 2 at Hover Street and Mountain View Avenue, responding to emergencies.
In January, firefighters moved into the new Fire Station 2, 2212 17th Avenue, which raised the question, what would happen to the old facility?
Currently, the old Fire Station 2 is being utilized as office space for public safety employees who were displaced due to the reconstruction work that is being done on the Safety and Justice Center, 225 Kimbark Street.
“What we did was, the old dorm rooms we had for when regular crews were living there, basically, we converted those to offices just as best we could,” Dan Higgins, Longmont fire chief, said. “They’ll be in that building at least for another year, probably two.”
Longmont’s EMS captain, fire training captain and fire training lieutenant now have offices in the old Fire Station 2. The space is being utilized for some minor equipment storage, too.
Longer term, the goal is to remodel the old Fire Station 2, which was constructed in 1967, into a small training and conference space for public safety personnel. However, there is no funding allocated for that project at this time.
Higgins made clear that any future training or conference space at the old Fire Station 2 would be small.
“There’s no way you could fit like a true conference room or anything like that on that site,” Higgins said.
Longmont also already has a Fire Training Center located on 13 acres at 111 First Avenue.
Less than $5,000 was allocated for staff to be able to move into the old Fire Station 2 structure, according to Robin Ericson, Longmont Public Safety communications and marketing manager.
In 2018, Longmont voters approved a bond issue to replace the old Fire Station 2.
The cost of the new Fire Station 2 amounted to roughly $6.9 million, which included design, land, construction and other miscellaneous costs.
As previously reported, in 2019, a few members of the Longmont City Council toured the old Fire Station 2 at that time at the request of a homeless advocacy group that was looking at potential sites for a homeless services navigation center or the like.
Such an arrangement never materialized.
The city manager and City Council ultimately decide the use of any city facility, and the fire department has approval to continue using the old Fire Station 2, Ericson said.
“We’ve always tried to be good neighbors over there and we’re going to continue to do that,” Higgins said of the old Fire Station 2. “Shouldn’t be noisy or disruptive to any other neighbors. So, still should be a nice, quiet area.”
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