HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-06-09 Special MinutesJune 9, 1993
Public Works Planning Room
5:00 p.m.
COUNCILMEMBERS
PRESENT: Steve Lawrence, Council President; Joan Hernandez, Dennis
Robertson, Allan Ekberg, Charlie Simpson, Steve Mullet
OFFICIALS: Mayor Wally Rants, John McFarland, Ross Earnst, Don Williams, Alan
Doerschel, Tom Keefe, Ron Waldner, Nick Olivas, Mike Alderson,
Lynn Devoir, Lucy Lauterbach
DISCUSSION:
Steve Lawrence went over a proposed agenda for the meeting, where the Council would
review the assumptions given for each facility, then go over the need for each, and finally
list priorities for all the facilities.
New Fire Station
TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING
MINUTES
Tom Keefe reviewed the needs at the current Station 53. He said response times, which
were initially a concern of his for that station, had dropped to the 5th or 6th worry because
other needs have eclipsed that. The diesel fuel leakage inside the building is very bad, with
petroleum residue upstairs in the living quarters, in the kitchen, and everywhere in the
station. The electrical system, the condition of the boiler, and the geotech survey results were
all concerns also. Mary Anderson has looked at replacing the exhaust system, but it would
be very expensive and difficult.
Joan Hernandez asked if there have been any health problems as a result of the exhaust.
Tom answered one fire fighter is claiming a severe bronchitis problem, though the cause is
unknown and Tom didn't think the station caused it.
Mayor Rants stated the fire station is 55 years old and has had heavy use throughout it's life.
The question, he said, was when the City would replace it.
In talking about the building, its size was given as 42,000 feet, on 1 acre.
Joan Hernandez stated she was concerned about the liability of fumes in the kitchen area.
Steve Lawrence then asked for consensus on whether the current fire station is inadequate
for the long term. Joan Hernandez, Charlie Simpson, Allan Ekberg and Steve Lawrence all
agreed it was. Steve Mullet said he wanted to do what is cost effective to remedy the
problems.
Roger Baker, citizen, said moving the station out of Allentown would cause opposition in
the neighborhood.
In talking about response times, Tom Keefe said the river bend causes trucks to lose about
2 minutes getting north or northeast, but the location itself isn't bad enough to warrant
moving the station. Anywhere between Norfolk and S. 115th would be adequate for response
times.
Tom has investigated all the possibilities for a new station site, and has discounted all but
one because of cost, size or location. The one viable site, he said, was the Ingersoll Rand
building, which is on 3.6 acres, and which costs $2,250,000. It has 5 equipment bays for heavy
vehicle maintenance. The north end of the building has 15,000 square feet, including 2,000
II '7'
feet of office space. Rainier/White Truck currently leases that for $10,000/ month. The
whole building has 32,000 square feet plus a fenced yard, which could be used to store city
or police vehicles. There are 13,000 feet of warehouse. The building is sprinklered, has air
conditioning, and 22' ceilings, which would make it possible to add a second floor. That cost
was estimated at $250,000 $300,000. Fire estimated they would use 20 -25% of the
building for their use, with the rest of it available for other uses. Response times from there
would be well within the 4 minute target for the whole coverage area.
In response to a question whether the north end of the City is covered by private fire
departments, Tom replied that was not the case. He said Boeing's crew is trained to
respond to crashes, but not to structure fires, and that they depend on Tukwila coverage.
Joan Hernandez asked about putting a fire station on the pea patch site, with a community
center phased in there later. That brought out the issue that there's an Indian midden there,
which would require digging to establish just what's there.
There was consensus to investigate a new building on the current site to see how that cost
would compare to the Ingersoll Rand purchase. Response times to various locations were
also asked.
New City Hall/ Police /Court Buildine
John briefly reviewed the problems at City Hall, which are lack of space and lack of parking.
The Minolta building is being leased through December 1994 or March, 1995 for
$175,000/year. John reminded Council that a process to do anything about a new building
would take 5 years. He estimated rents would stay low for a while, though it's hard to say
how long. Rental of the Xerox property didn't work out. One possibility is to build an annex
to City Hall, move the police and court people, then expand City Hall to accommodate the
staff now in Minolta.
Tom Beckwith, consultant, said he made two assumptions in planning a police /court annex
model: either suburban with lots of space to develop on, or urban with a more constricted
space. He showed several models of different configurations for an annex. One showed a
2 story building with single level parking; that would need 3.7 acres. If there's a parking
garage, it'd need only 1.8 acre.
He found a 2.8 acre site the most efficient. Staggering parking between floors without a
garage, he estimated would cost $7 -9 million Additional expansion at the current City Hall
to accommodate all the staff in the Minolta building would cost $2 3.5 million A new
annex would take about 2 -3 years to buy and build. Expanding City Hall would take a year
altogether, though there would be some overlap time on design of an annex.
Another option would be to buy the Minolta building for $2.5 $4.5 million. The building
has problems: a lack of parking, the building configuration isn't set up to be used as a city
hall type building, and it's a Class B building meant to last 25 years, and it's already 13 years
old.
Wally thought it was important to centralize government services in one location.
Tom Beckwith said the mechanical system in the Minolta building would probably break
first, and the carpets and walls are on a 5 -7 year replacement schedule. The shell would
probably last awhile, but it is not handy for city hall offices.
Joan Hernandez asked whether the City could get rents from other tenants in Minolta if we
bought it and only used part of it. Staff estimated we have about 12,000 feet for DCD and
Public Works in Minolta now, and there's less than 10,000 usable space where Police are in
City Hall.
The Xerox vacant land is still vacant, and Xerox finally decided they did want to sell it, but
that was too late. The Council talked about the current action requiring police presence in
the City being on Highway 99 now. Residential access to a police station is also important.
Ron Waldner said that citizens come into a station for fingerprinting (school teachers),
concealed weapons permits, accident reports, emergency vouchers for housing, directions,
or for a safe meeting place.
The discussion then moved to putting all police into the Minolta building. Ron said that is
an issue because the holding cell is so far away we'd have to pay extra staff to watch over
prisoners.
Steve Lawrence then tried to get a consensus from Council. Charlie Simpson said he liked
the police station on Highway 99. Steve Mullet liked the idea conceptually, but thought
finances were a problem Allan Ekberg and Joan Hernandez wanted to buy Minolta, though
Joan said she still likes the Highway 99 idea. Dennis said putting the station on 99 would
make a statement. He added that if it takes $3 million to buy Minolta or expand City Hall,
we may be able to get by without a bond.
Tom Beckwith said that the Minolta building may last a long time, but that the owner would
put the same value into the building in 12 years as it took to build it originally. He reiterated
that it's not laid out to be useful as a city hall.
Steve Lawrence said he was very concerned about money, but he thought what happened
on 99 would determine what happened to the City. If the costs were at all close or were
within $5 -6 million of the cheapest option, he wanted to improve Highway 99 by putting a
police station on it.
Allan Ekberg asked how much putting a police station on the highway would affect the area.
Steve Mullet asked what the life cycle costs (25 years) are for three options:
1. Using Minolta for additional City Hall offices
2. Moving police totally into Minolta
3. Building a new police and court on Highway 99 and moving DCD and Public Works back
to city hall.
Buying the Xerox property would cost $1 million, plus $6 -7 million for a new police building.
Dennis Robertson said he wasn't interested in building more administrative office space.
The Council asked for more information on how White Center's store front police place was
working, as they had heard favorable citizen comments on it. Ron Waldner said there wasn't
much impact from operations like that, though they sometimes made people feel better.
Fairwood also has such a place.
In discussing what future staff needs may be, Mayor Rants said regulations will continue to
increase. Ross Earnst noted the City will be taking over utilities with additional staff, and will
be required to do signal maintenance on the highways.
The Volvo White/ George Long building on Interurban is not fully used right now. Don
Williams and Lynn DeVoir will move there in the fall. It isn't big enough for all the shops.
The original plan was to add to the property, and that hasn't happened. Ingersoll Rand is
big enough for all vehicle maintenance, and Tom Keefe added it brings in $98,000 in rents
now. Options for parks, golf and shops were listed:
1. Stay with current facilities and make do for 6 years; reassess later.
2. Buy property adjoining Volvo White and add onto the building.
3. Buy an additional building like Ingersoll Rand, and put a new golf
maintenance shop between the 17th and 18th fairways.
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Steve Mullet cautioned against buying too much new property.
In listing their preferred alternatives, Dennis said he might prefer combining a new public
works facility with a fire station, such as could be done at Ingersoll Rand. Steve Mullet,
Charlie Simpson, and Allan Ekberg thought Ingersoll Rand might make some sense. Joan
said she doesn't want to buy new property until we use what we have. She doesn't want to
sell the Minkler property, and would prefer to use the George Long building. She said she
was in favor of using the Allentown pea patch for a fire station, phasing in a community
center there later. Steve Lawrence thought we should stand pat on our property for now,
remodeling as necessary, unless we moved into Ingersoll Rand.
Allan Ekberg led off the discussion about priorities by saying he could be convinced not to
remodel city hall and to build a police station on Highway 99 based on what a life cycle cost
study reveals. Based on current knowledge, he would buy Minolta and Ingersoll Rand.
Allan's #1 priority was a new fire station; city hall /police expansion #2.
Steve Mullet's #1 priority was a fire station; city hall /police #2.
Joan Hernandez's #1 priority was a fire station; city hall /police #2; community center #3
Charlie Simpson's #1 priority was police on 99; fire station #2; community center #3
Dennis Robertson said the community center and fire station were both approaching the end
of their useful lives. He agreed with Allan's position of buying Minolta, then buying a
community center. Those are higher priorities than a police /court facility.
Mayor Rants put a fire station #1; community center #2.
Steve Lawrence 's #1 priority was a police facility on highway 99; community center #2;
and city hall expansion #3.
Allan Ekberg reconsidered and placed a fire station as #1 priority; community center #2;
and city hall #3.
Allan summarized costs as $750,000 for a fire station remodel, $10 million for a community
center and $3 m. for Minolta as one option; for a total $13.7 million.
A second option is to buy Ingersoll Rand ($2.5 m) and Minolta ($3 m.) for fire, public
works, city hall and police. With a $10 m. community center, the total is $15.5 million
A third option is a police station on Highway 99 for $8 million, city hall expansion for $2.5
million, public works expansion for $1 m. and community center for $10 m. for a total of
$21.5 million
The administration will come back on June 28 with a range of options, including a
breakdown of long term costs for buildings, plus the viability of using the pea patch for both
fire and a community center.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.
L. Lauterbach
6/11/93