City buys lots for new fire station

FORT MADISON – City officials have approved the purchase of property adjacent to the current public works building for future construction.

At Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting, the council unanimously approved a $200,000 purchase agreement for several lots in the 2200 block of Avenue L.

The acquisition of the property at 2216 to 2220 Avenue L will allow for construction of a new fire station at a cost of about $9.5 million, according to preliminary estimates.

Fort Madison Fire Chief Joey Herren said obtaining the property allows the design to stay on one floor.

“We had to get those properties under our belt then we could do that design phase,” he said. “If I wasn’t able to get those, we would have had to go to two stories and when you go up, that jumps the costs up.”

He said there are no current timelines on the project.  But plans include a 7-bay single story fire station on the property. The city would tear down the current public works space to make room for the new fire department. One property owner wasn’t interested in selling, but said having the fire station nearby wasn’t an issue.

“The way the town’s laid out – elongated, we want to be centrally located and this keeps us there,” Herren said.

“The neighborhood is used to us and the noise we make. So what it boils down to is if we tried to go anywhere else, you would probably have to go out to the west side where there are some lots, but then with the way the city’s laid out, you’re talking four or five minutes to get to the east side of town.”

The city is also working on moving all public works space out near Rodeo Park.

The cost of that construction could hover around $11 million according to preliminary estimates.

“We did those back a ways and those are the original estimates,” he said.

The public works department will house the water department, the sewer department, and the parks department.

Herren said consolidating all those departments under one roof will help save on building maintenance costs with the consolidations.

Herren said the city will likely have to bond for the cost of the two buildings. They are looking for grants and other ways to offset some of the costs, but he said it’s hard to find money for this type of construction.

“We’ll have to take it to a bond,” he said. “We’ve looked at programs like USDA, but even that would pay for only about 25% if we could qualify for a grant.”

The county was just notified they were awarded a $974,000 grant from the USDA under the Emergency Rural Health Care grant, but funds in that grant program have been exhausted and it is unknown whether any of those funds that were created with federal stimulus money will be replenished for 2023.

In other action, the council also approved the maximum total dollar levy for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The total maximum tax dollars for the upcoming fiscal year is $4,135,325. That includes taxes for Regular General $2,495,356; Liability, Property & Self Insurance Cost $68,980; Emergency $83,179; Police & Fire Retirement $474,410; FICA & IPERS $230,530 & Other Employee Benefits $782,870. This amount does not include the Ag Tax of $2,572 or the Debt Service Tax of $1,064,790.

The Maximum Property Tax dollars requested in the total maximum levy does not represent greater than 102% of the Maximum Property Tax dollars requested for the current FY 2023. Most of the increase, per city officials, is due to employee benefits.