By Shawn Hogendorf, Staff Writer 

With financial conservatism and responsible spending on the minds of many these days, Prior Lake’s new Fire Station No. 2 got a bad rap even before the doors were set to open to the public for a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday.

Talk of Prior Lake’s newest “grand” civic building preceded it as the $2.8 million, 10,000-square-foot station has been called a “Taj Mahal” and a “fire palace” with regard to its exterior appearance.

But at the end of the day, 3906 Station Place is simply a fire station, city leaders said.

“Prior Lake is geographically challenged by the lake in an emergency situation,” said City Manager Frank Boyles. “The lake is obviously the jewel in the eye of our community and the namesake of our city, but from a fire standpoint, it’s a pain in the rear because there are only a couple crossings, and response time is the name of the game in firefighting.”

With a lake splitting the city and traffic volume increasing every day, there was never a question that Prior Lake would need more than one fire station, Boyles said.

The question was, is Prior Lake a two- or three-fire station city?

Location was at the forefront of planning the city’s second station, which began while firefighters still were moving into Fire Station No. 1, Fire Chief Doug Hartman said.

“We knew the difficulty we had in obtaining a site and the time restraints involved with that,” Hartman said. “The area we were originally looking at [near the Carriage Hills neighborhood] was about a block away from where this station ended up. So we’re right where we want to be.”The city of Prior Lake logo is in the
window of the station’s hose tower.
(Photo by Shawn Hogendorf)

The location of the second station (near county roads 21 and 42) gives the people living in the northern and western parts of Prior Lake better coverage and response times, Boyles said.

“Firefighters live throughout the community,” said Mayor Jack Haugen. “It was difficult for firefighters who live in the northern and western part of the community to get to the station and be an asset to the fire department during an emergency situation. Now, if firefighters live within minutes of Fire Station No. 2, they are able to respond more quickly to the northern and western part of the community.”

The second station currently has 15 of the department’s 41 firefighters responding to it. Firefighters have been responding to calls out of the new station since July 10.

Where firefighters respond depends on where they live, Hartman said. There are no boundaries dictating that firefighters have to live over a line to respond from the station.

“Firefighters think the station is fabulous,” Hartman said. “Joe Zieska [a firefighter and former City Council member] would never make a first or second truck because it took him so long to get to the station because of where he lives, but now he’s here in minutes and on a truck right away.

“We’ve already seen in some calls that our response times have improved in two ways,” he said. “The firefighters get here quicker, and they leave to the scene quicker.”

The price was right

The location of Fire Station No. 2 also came at the right price, according to city leaders.

The 1.3-acre parcel of land the station sits on, valued at about $130,000, came at no cost to taxpayers, Boyles said. The land was gifted to the city in a deal with Wensmann Homes, he said.

But there is no such thing as a free lunch.

In exchange for the property, the fire station’s design had to fit with current and planned residential properties as well as a high-end retail area that is planned adjacent to the fire station, Boyles said.

As part of the contract, the developers had the right of refusal to the exterior designs.

“We understood this was a gift and we better be careful on how the exterior looked so it matched the surroundings,” he said. “It couldn’t be an eyesore. It had to be consistent with the surroundings and encourage high-quality development.”

To do so, the fire station’s exterior was designed with four sides that each have distinct characteristics.

The County Road 42 side of the station was built to show off the station, Boyles said.

“That’s important to people if they are trying to find it and also for basic identity,” he said. “It’s a gateway to Prior Lake.”

The south and west sides, which are surrounded by residential property, are constructed with Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS), a modern-day stucco, rock, brick and red metal to keep a low profile, Boyles said. On the north side of the station, which will eventually be home to 28 acres of commercial property, the planning committee decided to put in the hose tower, which Boyles admits should have also been included in Fire Station No. 1.

“The hose tower was a hard lesson to learn,” Boyles said. “We cut it out of Fire Station No. 1 to save a buck, and more often than not, you see hose lying around on the floor to dry in Fire Station No. 1. Nothing dries very well on the floor.”

Hose lasts longer when it’s dried out in a tower, Hartman said. The hose tower will extend the life of the hoses and double as storage space and an area for rescue training, he said.

New partners

Along with the right location and aesthetics, Fire Station No. 2 also helped bolster partnerships between the “three-legged stool of public safety,” Boyles said.

The second fire station plays home to Allina ambulance service and also hosts a remote office for police. The partnership with Allina was made to improve ambulance response times, provide an additional $1,000 in rent for the space that is paid to the city and allow the fire department to cut back on responding to minor medical calls, Boyles said.

From a “green” perspective, Allina no longer needs to idle the ambulances 18 hours a day to keep drugs at the correct temperature, saving on gas and emissions, he said.

Excessive spending?

If the aesthetics were part of the contract of gifted land and the fire station was completed $500,000 under the original budget, were there any extras that could have been cut out?

From a fire chief’s perspective, Hartman said, “No.”

Though some residents have criticized the city for building a “Taj Mahal” station, Boyles said the building committee “consciously spent more money in some cases because we now know from experience where not to scrimp,” he said.

One area Boyles said the city “scrimped” on when building Fire Station No. 1 was the roof. That roof will have to be repaired or replaced in the next 10 years, he said. The lesson learned with the second fire station was to install a standing seam, which is more expensive but lasts longer, he said.

There were ideas thrown out and others that evolved over time while working with the committee, Haugen said. There was debate about whether the second story of windows on the station was good or bad, but with the light it provides, it has been an asset, he said.

“We wondered if we could validate the cost of that, but with the lighting in there, it will reduce lighting costs over time and be a good investment along with the aesthetic perception,” he said.

The firefighters like the apparatus area, which is brightly lit and has a little more elbow room, Hartman said. When things are tight, things get broken and safety becomes an issue, he said.

The second fire station could have done without the $30,000 Epoxy seal (also a feature of Fire Station No. 1) over the floor that allows for easy cleanup of oil stains, Boyles said, but the gritty seal was more importantly installed so firefighters don’t slip when getting into the rigs.

“That’s a safety issue.” Boyles said. “Could we have done without it? Yeah, but it would not have been a wise decision. I think investing in safety is a smart thing to do.

“Was there anything that was overboard? I won’t be the judge of that, but I don’t think anything was over the top,” he continued. “It looks ****** good, but I think we got a lot of mileage from the dollars. They were well-spent dollars, and it came in $500,000 below budget.”

The fitness center located on the second floor of the station is filled with equipment donated by Life Time Fitness. The landscaping and rain garden that surround the fire station was completed by city maintenance staff.

“If something bad happens like a fire, many citizens will have an additional peace of mind because of its proximity. That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “It may cost an extra $1.50 a month in taxes, but I think people forget about that very quickly when something significant happens in their lives and they need the ambulance or fire service there quickly. Because of that location, we are enhancing that service to our citizens, and that is what we should be doing as a government.”

Much of the criticism of Fire Station No. 2 came with the fact that it is the fifth new civic building in Prior Lake since Fire Station No. 1 was built in 1995.

Fire Station No. 1 was first; then the maintenance center, City Hall and police department were built; and now Fire Station No. 2. There will be a third fire station someday in the future because of the annexation of Spring Lake Township, Boyles said. It probably won’t be in the next five years, but it depends on how the annexations of the townships take place, he said.

“Every building we build [is] built to last for 50 years plus,” Haugen said.

 Voters, by a two-to-one margin, approved a $3.7 million referendum on Sept. 12, 2006. The referendum included $2.8 million for the fire station and another $900,000 for a 100-foot aerial platform truck. The station was completed $500,000 under the original budget, and as a result, the Prior Lake City Council will consider purchasing a rescue truck to be assigned to the second station.

“We truly appreciate the support of the community and the council, because that makes our lives easier to know that our equipment and facilities are reliable, and that makes us more reliable,” Hartman said.

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.