The bond question will only appear on the ballot for voters living within the Wood River Fire Protection District, which serves about 1,400 property owners in unincorporated Blaine County from Greenhorn Gulch south to Baseline Road. Some residential areas in the taxing district include the Valley Club, Indian Creek, Zinc Spur, Starweather and Croy Canyon. The district had a total taxable value of about $1.3 billion in 2021, according to the Blaine County Assessor’s Office.

The May 17 ballot will ask whether property taxes should be raised by an estimated $74.33 per $100,000 value annually over 25 years to build the station. (The current levy rate for the district is $84.31 per $100,000, meaning a property valued at $600,000 currently pays $506 annually, and the bond—at $74.33 per $100,000—would tack on an additional $446 per year, or $11,150 over 25 years.) It will need a two-thirds majority vote to pass. Last November, it failed narrowly, with 63% in favor and 37% opposed.

According to the district, the total amount to be repaid over the 25-year life of the bond would be approximately $24.7 million, with $17.1 million in principal and about $7.6 million in interest. The anticipated interest rate would be 3% per year.

Where would the station be?

Wood River Fire & Rescue crews currently live at Station 1 on Walnut Street in Hailey, adjacent to the Old County Courthouse, and Station 3, south of Bellevue. Station 2, located on Third Avenue next to The Grange, is only used to store two fire engines and heavier-duty rescue equipment.

If the election is successful, the district would use capital funds to purchase the southern 2.5 acres of the Life Church’s 4.5-acre, $1.56 million property at 911 N. River St., across from the Albertsons parking lot and north of the Marketron headquarters building.

The district previously considered building a replacement station at Main and McKercher streets, east of Albertsons, but Albertsons, as the tenant, objected. Commissioners also considered McKenzie Lane north of Hailey as a location, but the cost of demolition was too high. The district initiated conversations with the Life Church in September 2020.

The station would feature four drive-through bays that could accommodate up to eight large vehicles, ample medical and rescue equipment storage space, separate office and living quarters, a gym facility, a designated turnout bay, private bedrooms and drive-through bays with doors on both sides, which would reduce time spent backing in and limit the likelihood of vehicle damage. Thirty parking spaces would be provided to ensure that no street parking spaces are taken by WRFR vehicles. Ambulances and engines would primarily enter and exit the station from Empty Saddle Trail, though a second means of egress is planned off River Street.

Building a new station off Empty Saddle Trail would mean that the district would no longer need Stations 1 and 2, which could be returned to Blaine County and the city of Hailey for other uses. Station 3 would be retained to serve Woodside, Bellevue and Timmerman Junction.

What’s wrong with the current station(s)?

With only two bedrooms, Wood River’s Station 1 on Walnut Street is too small to comfortably sleep three to five firefighters. (WRFR runs up to five people per 24-hour shift.) A third or fourth firefighter must either sleep on a flip-down Murphy bed or on a bed in WRFR Chief Bass Sears’ office downstairs, displacing Sears. Kitchen, dining, and office space is also co-located with sleeping quarters in a single second-floor room, making it difficult to rest. No gym facilities are available at Station 1, meaning that anyone stationed there will have to train at Bigwood Fitness in Hailey.

The apparatus bays in Station 1 are too narrow to hose down vehicles, comfortably retrieve supplies or complete rig checks and inventory after bigger calls. With inadequate ventilation and barely an arm’s width of clearance, two to three crew members will be lined up trying to get dressed against ambulances and exhaust tubing.

Due to a lack of storage space at Station 1, crews must travel six blocks to Station 2 to retrieve more complex water, avalanche and rope rescue equipment—as well as the district’s higher-water-capacity engines or its ladder truck—extending response times by several minutes.

Around $1 million of the requested $17 million would also fund a partial remodel of Station 3, which is shared with BLM firefighters from May 1 until the end of wildfire season and officers from the Bellevue Marshal’s Office. The remodel would carve out empty, unused hallway and bathroom space and redesignate it for proper turnout, storage, office and training rooms, and build a stairwell to address a current safety hazard—whenever crews conduct fire simulations at the station’s outdoor training facility, they must use a ladder up against a wall to carry heavy equipment up and down.

When would construction start?

The district is hoping to break ground on the station in the spring of 2023. First, though, the property would either need to be rezoned, or code would need to be changed to allow a fire station on the lot. The property is under R-1 residential zoning, which currently does not permit public safety facilities.