The city of Moberly will need to decide whether or not to spend between 650 and 900 thousand dollars to renovate or rebuild its fire stations.
A study of the fire stations conducted by Williams Kuhl & Freshnock Architects highlighted a series of health and safety issues with the stations, including a lack of adequate ventilation and sprinkler systems.
For Rick Kuhl and his firm, it’s not uncommon for buildings like these that were built in the 1970s to not be up to code with the latest regulations.
“We found similar things that we find in other stations of that age where there are certain changes that have been made in terms of fire station design that their facilities have not kept pace with,” said Kuhl, “It’s like any facility that’s 40 or 50 years old that hasn’t had a lot of capital investment over time.”
Kuhl knows that for a community like Moberly, having the funds to undergo large-scale renovation projects can be difficult.
“Maybe our recommendations can become potentially funded capital improvements over time, and identify the priorities in terms of what work you might want to accomplish by when and to chip away at it,” said Kuhl, “There’s a lot of ground to make up, so that’ll be a challenge for Moberly as well as any small community like that.”
“You gotta plan at least five, ten, even twenty years in advance down the road,” said Moberly Fire Chief George Albert regarding the possibility of just building new fire stations.
For Albert, one of the biggest obstacles is going to be deciding whether or not it’s worth the cost to upgrade the old facilities.
“The town is growing some. It’s expanded from where our previous stations are,” said Albert, “A lot of our residential and things that are going on are moving to the south, so do you really want to invest money in the stations that you have? You’re basically looking at a 50-year old building and you’re going to be putting modern technology into those facilities, is that something you want to consider?”
Moberly City Council members met with Kuhl and his firm last Wednesday to discuss these issues, as well as budgeting options for future renovation projects. The council is set to review and set up a renovation plan in time for the next fiscal year.