By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
TIDEWATER – It may not have firefighters on duty and a steady supply of water may be months away, but this community of nearly 900 people will have a functioning fire station beginning Saturday.
Like any new construction, there are still some small things to get done. But after years of neglect and then some political turmoil the 2,225 square foot station will house fire equipment – and maybe soon some volunteers.
Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue is having an open house from 1-3 p.m. Saturday for the Tidewater community for anyone to come take a look. There will be hotdogs, soft drinks and popcorn free to anyone, equipment to inspect and fire officials and board members to chat with. But the focus will be on the remodeled and updated station, which has slowly been undergoing a metamorphosis for nearly two years.
“It was basically a shed,” says COCF&R Chief Jamie Mason. “Now it’s a fully functioning fire station rather than a garage for two trucks.”
And it all happened for less than $200,000 – one sixth the cost of what it may have run had the fire district not done the bulk of the work itself.
The next step, coming this winter, is to recruit a cadre of Tidewater volunteers – there’s just one now – to help respond to emergencies.
“The goal is to get more volunteers up there,” said Mason. “That will be easier once there’s a nice building there with the appropriate vehicles.”
The station will house an engine, water tender and a brush truck – which will be the first piece of equipment to respond to most emergencies.
The remodeled station has an all-new electrical system, a compressor connected to run air lines to recharge engines and equipment, a generator, and two water tanks to store 5,000 gallons of water. There are new trusses and roof, the two bay doors were raised to 16 feet. An office was created in the back along with a second-floor storage area.
There are cameras and a security system. And the whole building can be seen and run remotely – even the bay doors opened — from computers in Waldport or cell phones by on-duty staff.
“It took a lot of thinking outside the box to make this come together,” said Lt. Erich Knudson, the district’s maintenance officer who did the bulk of the remodeling work with help of volunteer Bob Carskadon of Tidewater.
The only work done by outside contractors was to install the roof, re-wire the building and drywall the interior.
Former COCF&R board member Peter Carlich, who lives in the Tidewater’s Westbrook Village neighborhood and fought for years to get the station fixed, said Knudson “hasn’t gotten enough credit” for the work he’s done.
“If we didn’t have Erich to do what he’s doing, this wouldn’t have happened,” Carlich said. “It would have cost too much money.”
The district bought the land from Gary Nyus in 2020 for $75,000. It has spent another $100,000 so far for the remodeling.
Knudson said at the current rate of $550 a square foot to build fire stations, it could have cost $1.25 million if the work had been contracted out.
Tidewater RFD
The original structure was built in the 1950s when the owner of the adjacent structure opened a gas station and small store. The front was extended later. It was used by the Tidewater Rural Fire Protection District, an all-volunteer group made up mostly of World War II veterans. It later merged with the Waldport Fire District.
In May 1998 voters formed the Central Oregon Coast district, and a year later it entered an agreement to provide fire services to the Waldport-Tidewater communities. In May 2000 voters in both districts voted to merge and COCFR absorbed Tidewater.
But the station sat mostly ignored and neglected for years. The gas station and two houses just to the west were abandoned, fell into disrepair and a few years ago were sold for back taxes.
The district stationed two pieces of equipment there just to meet fire insurance requirements.
“A lot of people didn’t know it was a fire station,” said Mason. “A lot didn’t know how bad it was.”
But as the Tidewater community nearly doubled in population between 2010 and 2020 there was growing concern about fire response and the deteriorating station. In 2016, Carlich and others began attending COCF&R board meetings to ask questions about the station and press the district to upgrade it. The board finally put aside money in the budget to buy the property and begin work, but ran into reluctance by former chief Gary Woodson to start work.
“I’m glad we got the money into the budget because not much happened for a couple of years,” Carlich said.
That changed when Woodson was forced out in February 2021.
Mason sorted through state and county paperwork and put Knudson to work on the building, while often being pulled off to repair district equipment.
Knudson initially thought the upper walls of the station could be saved. But the wood was riddled with dry rot. He was able to salvage the massive wood beams, but the walls were torn down, new trusses ordered and the roof raised.
It’s nearly done now. Exterior lights went up this week. There’s a new sign on order that will go in the parking lot facing Highway 34.
It will take more time to get a regular supply of water to the station from the creek just to the east, but two 2,500 tanks at the rear of the station will supply the tender.
Fire crews and volunteers plan to spend Friday cleaning the building to get ready to show off to its neighbors. After that, comes the longer and harder task of recruiting and training volunteers.
“Now we just need some volunteers out here,” Knudson said.
- Quinton Smith is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
