Parkersburg City Council Considers Land Purchase for New Fire Station | News, Sports, Jobs

The Parkersburg City Council is expected to consider the first reading of an ordinance authorizing the purchase of this property in the 700 block of Briant Street as the site of a replacement fire station at its regular meeting Tuesday. (Photo by Clara Noelle)

PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg City Council members are expected to vote Tuesday on purchasing property for a replacement fire station.

An ordinance up for first reading at Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. meeting authorizes the $50,000 purchase of land in the 700 block of Briant Street owned by Seventh Street United Methodist Church. Mayor Tom Joyce said Friday that’s where Fire Chief Jason Matthews decided the city’s Fire Station 3 should be built.

“This location was chosen and the decision was made, at least from the administration’s point of view, on the basis of statistics and facts and… not on the basis of feelings and emotions,” Joyce said.

He noted that the property is located 700 metres east of 13th and Liberty Streets, where Fire Station 3 currently sits. Based on the fire chief’s research, the new location will provide “improved response times for approximately 900 residents located east of Parkersburg and 230 structures,” Joyce said.

If the station is built there, it will add three miles of road to less than a four-minute response time for city fire trucks, Joyce said. Matthews noted that four minutes is the National Fire Protection Association’s recommended response time standard.

A picnic shelter is the only structure on the property in the 700 block of Briant Street that the Parkersburg City Council will consider purchasing for a replacement fire station Tuesday. (Photo by Clara Noelle)

Station 3 is the last of three fire stations built during the Great Depression. Stations 2 and 4 have been replaced in recent years near their original locations.

Last month, the council allocated funds for a possible property acquisition.

City officials had discussed building a new fire station on Seventh Street, on the former Economy Inn site, which was purchased by the Urban Renewal Authority last year in an effort to clean up slums and blight. That raised some questions when the authority received several offers to buy the site.

Officials voted last month to have the city’s development department further explore and actively market the land at 1945 Seventh St.

Joyce said Friday that the property had “much greater potential for tax revenue.”

“The 700 block of Briant Street doesn’t get 12,000, 13,000 cars a day,” he said. “Let’s look beyond the next election and think about what’s best for the city in the long term.”

The city spent more than $800,000 to acquire and demolish the Economy Inn, a move the mayor said was necessary to protect surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. The hotel was the scene of frequent calls from law enforcement and medical services.

Tuesday’s agenda also includes a resolution authorizing the temporary sale of beer and/or wine for the Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa’s Summer Bash Festival on July 20 at Bicentennial Park.

A resolution adopting the city’s federal allocation of $890,796 in Community Development Block Grant funds and $425,112 in HOME funds will be considered earlier in the evening at a 6 p.m. Finance Committee meeting in the Executive Conference Room on the second floor of the Municipal Building. If referred by the committee, the resolution will be presented to council at the regular meeting.

You can contact Evan Bevins at [email protected].

Today’s latest news and more delivered to your inbox