Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue looking to buy Waldport property for main station, but needs study first, then community comments

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue needs its own home in Waldport.

Now that the city of Waldport has moved its offices to the former Umpqua Bank building, the city is offering to sell its former City Hall and fire station property – yes, the city owns it – to the district.

The asking price? $1.1 million.

While the fire board thinks the price is a little steep, the city maintains it is constrained by a state law that prohibits it from selling public property to anyone for less than its appraised value.

So the board has asked a commercial building and consulting company in Eugene to go through the main station and former city offices in downtown Waldport and see what it will take – and cost – to make it an adequate, modern fire station.

The fire board met last week to discuss the city’s offer. The Waldport City Council had discussed it the previous week.

“We need to look at the building and see what we need to do,” board chair Tim Grady told YachatsNews.

Once it gets a rough plan and estimate, the fire board will again discuss buying the property – and likely asking district voters to approve a bond to fund the while thing.

“We want to come out of this with a station that will serve us for 50 years, not do a little something every five years,” said Grady.

Property search started 5 years ago

The whole situation arises out of a confluence of building searches and developments in Waldport.

The fire district has been renting its current location from the city for 20 years at a rate of $1 a year. The city warned the district five years ago that in July 2022 the lease would have to increase to the going commercial rate, said City Manager Dann Cutter. That’s now estimated to be $5,200 a month.

As part of that process, the city and fire district began exploring the possibility of a combined public service building on land outside the tsunami zone – likely in a city industrial park off Crestline Drive. But the fire district dropped out of that search 18 months ago once it discovered a location along Crestline was too far away – and along school and neighborhood roads – from a Tidewater substation and would therefore raise property owner insurance rates substantially.

A state law that required new public service buildings to be built out of tsunami zones was also changed in 2019, allowing police, fire and hospital operations the option of locating in or out of the zones.

That same year, Umpqua Bank walked away from its building along Highway 34, giving it to the city for $1. The initial thinking was that some nonprofit would take it over, but the city decided it made more sense to move its offices there and offer its offices and the station to the fire district.

Cutter told YachatsNews that a 2018 insurance appraisal of the 10,000 square-foot city hall properties valued it at $1.6 million. But using a different method of calculating its value, he was able to bring the price down to $1.1 million.

But that’s as far as the city is willing to go, he said.

“We feel that under state law we can’t come down from there,” Cutter said. “The law prevents is from giving away public assets. The city is trying to be the best possible partner with the fire district … and trying to make sure the citizens of Waldport aren’t paying twice.”

Station needs to stay downtown

Now, the next move is up to the fire district board.

The district wants to stay in the same location because it is within 10 miles of its Tidewater station, which is necessary to keep the current homeowner and commercial fire insurance rating.

“We just got a nice insurance drop … and we want to keep that,” Grady said.

The fire board is asking McKenzie Commercial of Eugene to come in to see what it would cost to protect the structure and equipment from earthquakes, create separate quarters for fire and ambulance crews, move offices from the fire station to the former city hall, and other changes to modernize the structure.

“We need to look at the building and see what we need to do,” said Grady. “But it’s going to be substantial.”

Once the board gets options, Grady said it would hold public meetings to get feedback and an idea of what size of bond might feasibly be approved by voters.

The district also has a 10-year tax levy for equipment purchases that it would likely wrap into any bond proposal, Grady said.

“We’re moving forward. We’re just waiting to see what options McKenzie brings us,” he said. “But we don’t see another option. The property just isn’t there.”